Vanishing Vixen
by Cheeky-Chick1only
Summary: Naru really was his most unpredictable student. A talent for seals and the uncanny ability to completely disappear and a reluctance to explain where she got all of this information that she really shouldn't know. fem!naru
1. Surprising information

Kakashi looked on approvingly as his perspective students scattered. They were at least taking this test seriously. He could easily see Sasuke hidden in the trees and Sakura in the bushes, but they were doing a decent job for academy students. And he wasn't a jonin for nothing. He glanced around for his third student and raised an eyebrow when he didn't find her immediately. That was strange. He focused his senses, searching for a scent or sound to give her away. To his utter shock it was as if she had completely disappeared.

Kakashi walked over to where the brats had been standing around waiting for him and he could easily identify her scent, the odd mix of forest and ramen, but it didn't seem that the scent went in any direction. Now Kakashi was both impressed and frustrated. He didn't have too long to think on it, Sasuke decided to take advantage of the silver haired man's distraction to launch an attack.

The assault was predictably futile, but Sasuke impressed Kakashi by managing to at least touch one of the bells. After burying Sasuke up to his head Kakashi went off to test Sakura. The girl was supposed to be the top of her class with a talent for genjutsu, so he wrapped a low-rank illusion around the girl and sweat dropped at how easily she fell for it. That was just pathetic.

With both of the examinees occupied Kakashi began to seriously search for his wayward charge. No matter how hard he searched there was simply no sign of the blonde girl. Kakashi mentally growled. That wasn't possible! While he specialized in assassination, Kakashi was quite an accomplished tracker. No genin could hide from him. Hell, most jonin couldn't do it!

The next two hours were spent looking for the girl and keeping an eye on the other two. He was not surprised to see that Sasuke refused to work with Sakura and he was disappointed when the alarm went off and no one had managed to get one of the bells.

Everyone made there way back to the training posts and Kakashi's eye twitched when he saw Naru in the exact same spot she'd been in before she vanished. The girl didn't even react as the man tied Sakura to a post.

"Do I even need to tell you that you've failed miserably? Not one of you managed to grab a bell."

Kakashi was cut off by the tinkling of a bell. He turned and saw both of the bells dangling from Naru's hand. He quickly checked his belt and was shocked to notice the bells were gone.

"When did you—?"

Naru shrugged, a mischievous smile on her face. "When you were distracted with Sasuke I snuck up behind you and grabbed a bell. And while you were putting the genjutsu on Sakura I grabbed the second one."

She had to be lying. Maybe he hadn't been able to find her during the test but there was absolutely no way she had been following him around the whole time and he didn't see her. And he would have noticed someone that close to him. He had not been even close to going all out with either student, he was not distracted enough to not notice the one student he was actively looking for. Still, if that was how she wanted to play it, he could go along with her. "Well then, which of your teammates will you give a bell to? You only need the one after all."

Maybe his test wouldn't be a complete waste after all. While they hadn't worked together to get the bell maybe they would still be able to work together now.

Sakura and Sasuke both stared intently at the blonde. Sakura bit her lip. She wanted to pass so badly but her passing would mean Sasuke would be sent back to the academy. Sakura, with her eyes downcast, said, "Give the bell to Sasuke. I didn't do anything. Sasuke at least managed to touch the bell, I couldn't even do that."

Sasuke felt reluctantly impressed with Sakura, he hadn't thought she could be that selfless. He glanced at Kakashi whose face was completely blank and Naru who was staring at him to see what he would say. Sasuke gritted his teeth, he wanted to take the bell, he needed to become a ninja if he was ever going to defeat that man. But he didn't feel right knowing that he would only be going on because Sakura was willing to sacrifice herself for him.

"I didn't earn that bell either. I was only a distraction." It looked like it pained Sasuke to say it, but Sakura perked up, her face going red as she realized that her crush was defending her.

Kakashi was very pleased with his student's responses, he might actually have a team this time. Still, he needed to hear from one more student before he would allow them to pass. "Naru? Who is it going to be?"

Naru frowned, looking between the two. She didn't want to be the one to send one of them back to the academy. She had only barely graduated to begin with, was it really fair that Sasuke or Sakura be punished just because Naru was better and sneaking around?

"Here," she said softy, holding out a bell to each of her teammates. Well, she guessed, almost teammates. It hurt to pass up her chance to finally become a ninja, but she knew she couldn't be the reason they failed. Sasuke and Sakura stared at the girl in shock and they both felt their respect for the girl grow a little. It humbled them, especially Sasuke, to see her give up her dream so that they could pass.

Kakashi was so proud he could almost burst. "You all pass."

"WHAT?" Sakura shrieked.

Kakashi eye smiled at his new team. "Have you ever noticed that all teams are made up of a four-man cell? You would never see a genin team of 2 unless they lost a teammate. The bell test is meant to test Konoha's most fundamental virtue—teamwork."

Sakura's eyes were bugging out. She was vexed at being tricked by the man and confused at the same time. "But there are only two bells!"

"Yes," he agreed. He was enjoying watching their reactions. Sasuke looked angry he hadn't figured out the secret and also annoyed at the fact that teamwork, which he clearly did not think very highly of, had been the entire purpose of the exam. "As ninja we are expected to act in the best interests of our village and our client. Sometimes what is best for the village is not what is best for us. On a mission you can and will have to lie, cheat, kill, and seduce. And there are times when you may lose a comrade or be captured yourself. The bell test forces you to confront the needs of your team versus your own needs. If you cannot be trusted to put your team first how will you ever be trusted with the village? If you can't face the idea of another year in the academy how can you be expected to risk your life?"

The genin were taken aback by the serious turn in the conversation. Sakura gulped, she often tried to ignore the realities of ninja life because of course nothing bad would happen to her. If she was ever in danger Sasuke would save her! But hearing her sensei's words she considered for the first time that she might put Sasuke in danger. If they were ever attacked would Sasuke get hurt protecting her? And even if she didn't like Naru very much she didn't want the girl to get hurt trying to protect her. Sakura had always believed she would be a great ninja. She was the best in the academy other than Sasuke. But today's test proved just how out of her depth she was. She had accomplished absolutely nothing today. Sasuke managed to touch the bells and Naru somehow claimed them both. And what had she done? Fallen for a genjustu and passed out. Sakura swore to herself then and there that she would never be this useless again. She wanted to be of use to her new team.

Sasuke tried to hide it but he felt deeply shaken. He wanted to rage that Itachi hadn't needed a team in order to massacre his clan, but wasn't that almost the point? Itachi had put his own needs before the good of anyone else and that was what made him a monster. And did Sasuke really want to be like that man? Still, this went against everything he had believed in for the last few years and it would take time before he was willing to change his outlook on life.

Kakashi's eye settled on his blonde genin. He was very curious about how she'd managed to evade him so thoroughly.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The Hokage leaned back in his chair, taking a puff from his pipe. "So, Kakashi, you finally passed a team."

Kakashi eye-smiled, "What can I say, they're a great group of kids."

Sarutobi made a noncommittal noise. "And what did you make of them?"

"Sasuke's taijutsu is on par with a veteran genin and he is able to use some higher level ninjutsu which was unexpected. His planning was decent, and he carried it out well. I didn't test his genjutsu, bit as an Uchiha it should be proficient. His arrogance will likely be a problem, he considers his teammates useless and he wants nothing to do with them. He's also obsessed with getting revenge for the massacre. I believe he is a flight risk, but if we can secure his loyalty he could be one of the best ninjas of his generation.

"Is that so?" The Sandaime mused. "I agree he has potential, but he needs to be carefully watched. And the others?"

Kakashi sighed. "Sakura is…distressing. Her records indicate she has top grades, but her performance was subpar. She shows a frankly disturbing fixation for the Uchiha and a dislike of Naru. She was flagged for having a talent for genjutsu but was easily trapped by a low-level illusion. She showed no ninjutsu or taijutsu but I'm not expecting much there. Her chakra levels are low, even for a rookie. Her attitude also needs some working on. She passed out and then just followed Sasuke like a little lemming, so I don't have any idea of her strengths, if there are any." He muttered the last part under his breath.

The Sandaime raised an eyebrow, showing that yes, he did in fact hear that, thank you very much. "And Naru?"

Kakashi faced the hokage and said in utmost seriousness, "I have no idea of the girl's abilities beyond that she could easily be promoted to tokubetsu jonin on her stealth and evasion. She completely disappeared and apparently, I didn't notice her when she was right next to me, or when she was taking the bells. How is that possible?"

The Hokage released a breath, blowing out a stream of smoke. "What I am about to tell you is not to be repeated to anyone. Understand?"

Kakashi nodded, a little worried about what he would find out.

"Naru spent the first few years of her life in an orphanage and when she started the academy she was given her own apartment. This is what was told to everyone who cared enough to ask after her. Anyone else was simply told she was being taken care of."

Kakashi nodded. He had asked after the girl often, but never checked on her himself. He couldn't bring himself to face his sensei's daughter. He didn't want to see any reminders of the people he'd lost that night.

The Sandaime looked as if he had aged forty years. "That was a lie." Kakashi's visible eye widened. He hadn't expected the hokage to be so blunt. He was also angry. He might not have been able to face the girl, but he'd been fanatical about making sure the girl was safe and cared for.

"The truth is that when Naru was four the orphanage kicked her out and the ANBU assigned to guard Naru decided not to inform me. He abandoned his post but continued to provide reports saying she was still at the orphanage. It wasn't until I visited the orphanage, some two years later, that I discovered the truth. I cannot even describe to you how utterly enraged I was. I assembled a team of elite, but discreet, tracking ninja and ordered a search to be done as quietly as possible. Could you imagine the chaos if the village discovered our jinchuriki was missing? I was very worried when they were unable to find her. I began to fear the worst. I was planning on launching a massive search party when someone reported that Naru was causing trouble in the market. We could not believe our eyes when we saw her there. I brought her back to my office and asked where she had been, but she pretended not to know what I meant. She can be quite slippery, that girl. I had y ANBU tail her when she left to find out where she was staying, and she lost them quite easily."

Kakashi gaped. One did not simply lose ANBU guards. He was one of the only ninjas capable of doing so, but he had been ANBU and knew all of their tricks. For a child, one not even in the academy yet, it was unheard of.

"After that I always had a team of ANBU on the lookout for her. And they were under strict orders to follow the girl everywhere. She lost every single ANBU. She gives no indication of even knowing they're there. There is no indication she was preparing any kind of jutsu or that she was preparing to make an escape. I have ANBU who swear to me that she vanishes right before their eyes. They are looking directly at her and suddenly she's not there anymore. And no one can find her. It's as if she's disappeared from the face of the planet. I've tried to ask her how she does it, but she just smiles and says it is a secret. If you fin out how she does it, you are to inform me at once. It could completely revolutionize infiltration and assassination missions. However, I know very little about Uzumaki Naru. I can only find her when she wants to be found. I don't know if the academy teachers sabotaged her or if her skills are really that bad. She could easily spy on other genin training sessions or even chunin and jonin training. She could know anything."

Kakashi couldn't contain himself any longer, "How could you not know? How could you not notice she was missing for so long?"

Sarutobi sighed, "Kakashi I missed my own children growing up. This job is difficult and time-consuming for a young man and I am certainly not that any longer. I don't have time for my own family, I certainly don't have time to raise that little girl. I have done what I can, it is clearly not enough, but it is what I managed."

Kakashi nodded his head, ashamed. What right did he have to accuse the hokage when he had been no better?

The Sandaime decided to move on, acknowledging the silent apology. "Naru may not seem like it, but she is even more of a flight risk than Uchiha Sasuke."

Kakashi started at that, "What do you mean? Naru is famous for going around shouting about being hokage. And though life has been hard for her she seems reasonably well-adjusted."

The Sandaime scoffed. "Naru has been missing for more than half of her life. There have been long periods of time where she is completely unaccounted for. She could be leaving the village already. If she is ever so much as late to a team meeting you _will_ respond as if she has left the village. We have a hard-enough time trying to find her as it is, with a potential head start? We'd never find her. I don't need to tell you how unacceptable that would be."

Kakashi gulped. If he were a lesser man he'd have crumpled under the force of the old man' KI.

"We were fortunate that she had the academy five days a week, we were able to keep track of her that way. Every time she skipped a day the gate guards and ANBU were put on high alert. Summer breaks may have prompted the tightest security the village has ever had. Naru is fond on Iruka and she has begun to bond with Konohamaru, but she has no real attachments to this village. She could defect at any time and honestly, I could not blame her if she did. As a ninja who goes on missions she will have more opportunities and temptations. Keep and eye on her, but do not alienate her."

Kakashi's mind was spinning. This was not how he'd expected the meeting to go. Just what had he gotten himself into by taking a team? To borrow a phrase, "How troublesome." 


	2. Training gets real

Naru gritted her teeth in annoyance. They'd been a team for over a week now and Kakashi had been late meting them Every. Damn. Day. Grumbling to herself, she decided that if he couldn't be bothered to show up on time she was just going to use the time herself. Pulling out two scrolls, she settled down to work, ignoring the startled and curious looks her teammates were giving her.

They watched her work for a little while and finally asked, "What are you doing?"

Naru didn't even bother looking up. "I'm tired of just sitting around waiting for Kakashi-sensei to show up. I can't really practice my taijutsu because sensei hasn't started teaching us any new styles and everyone knows that nobody uses the academy style since everybody knows it, making it easy to predict and counter. And since he hasn't taught us any new jutsu either I can't practice that. So I'm just going to study my seals."

Sasuke perked up at that, intrigued. "Seals? You mean like the sealing arts?" The academy barely touched on the subject, it was supposed to be wickedly hard to learn and they just didn't have anyone knowledgeable enough to teach even the basics.

Naru finally looked up, beaming. "Yeah! When I heard the Yondaime was a seal master I started wondering the kinds of things you could do with seals and it's so amazing! You can do so many things, exploding tags and storage scrolls are the least of what is possible. And they say its really complicated but it makes perfect sense to me. It's hard to find study materials so I kind of try to feel my way through. Do what feels right, you know? I haven't really done anything big yet, but I've got some theoretical formulas I'd love to try out."

Sasuke and Sakura stared at the girl in shock. They were the smartest in their class and it didn't exactly take a genius to realize that the teachers, minus Iruka, had sabotaged the girl. So even though they knew she wasn't the idiot her grades suggested, it was still a little jarring to hear her talk about such an advanced topic.

Sakura was really intrigued. "What would they do?" Sakura was trying to make an effort to be civil with Naru. She realized that if she wanted to grow stronger she needed to focus on being a ninja first and a girl second. That meant she needed to learn and train as much as possible and build trust with her team. It was a little humbling and a lot embarrassing to see how Sasuke was more receptive to her presence now that she wasn't begging for a date and he actually answered her when she asked questions about training. To her shame he actually seemed relieved.

Naru beamed and showed her and Sasuke a long list of symbols. "This is basically the alphabet of seals. These are the parts you use most often. The basis of all seals is sacrifice. For most seals, the "sacrifice" is nothing more that the ink used to draw and the time it took to make it. Some of the more complex seals require blood or chakra. A true seal master transcends the need for ink, they can will seals into existence." She raved on and on, getting increasingly technical while Sasuke and Sakura tried to follow, but they had long since been left in the dust.

Sasuke eyed Naru in interest and growing respect. In truth, Sasuke had no respect for any of his former classmates, but he had looked down on Naru especially. He had been forced to confront the fact that the girl had talent during the bell test, but seals were another thing entirely. He remembered that man had been interested in sealing arts, but he had found the art difficult and had abandoned the pursuit. He had explained to Sasuke why seal masters were to be feared; a seal could be used by a civilian or jonin, it didn't matter how strong the person was, most seals could power themselves. That meant that a seal master could wreak untold destruction without wasting any energy or chakra. The idea of learning something Itachi had failed at really appealed to Sasuke. It also made him all the more intrigued by his teammate.

Sakura looked fascinated. She knew that she didn't have a lot of chakra, but this was something where she wouldn't need it. She tried to follow along with Naru's explanation, but quickly fell behind. A line facing down could increase the strength of an explosive seal, but if the line is diagonal it becomes a dud? A mark of the left extended a timer, but on the right shortens it? That made no sense. Still, Sakura's eyes seemed drawn towards a small section that was marked green. "What's that?" she asked.

Naru blinked, trying to refocus from the tangent she'd gone on. "Oh, that section is devoted to seals for healing. A lot of the more complicated and delicate procedures involve seals as well as medical ninjutsu. They work together, medic nins sometimes guide the seal. Plus it can split the work, the seal takes care of some and the medic takes care of the rest. The seals are a little different because of how intricate bodies are. They can mend, stimulate growth, all sorts of things."

Sakura took a closer look and immediately knew that she needed to learn more. She had spent the past week trying to figure out who she wanted to be as a ninja. She'd done research on famous ninjas and she had felt drawn to Tsunade the Slug Sannin. She had been searching for something that suited her and discovered medical ninjutsu. She would need to build up her chakra reserves, but this was one of the only fields where studying and book smarts would actually be useful. She had heard that with her chakra control she would be good with genjutsu, but the idea was really unappealing to her. She just didn't have the imagination for it and something about illusions offended her on a personal level. She preferred dealing out physical attacks.

Naru's lips curled into a gentle smile. She recognized the look in the girl's eye. She could see the fire burning in her soul.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Kakashi stayed in his hiding spot, taking in what he'd just seen. Hearing Naru's less than flattering description of his teaching, while accurate, was still a blow to his pride. Generally, fresh genin were only taught team building skills. Individual growth came later. It's what ensured that teamwork was engrained in ninja as they advanced in rank. Still, Kakashi mused, there was no rule saying that had to be the case. Maybe if his team started to grow together that might help them to grow as a team. And he knew just how to start.

Kakashi appeared in a puff of smoke in front of his team who reluctantly stepped away from the impromptu sealing lesson. Rather than open with one of his trademark excuses, Kakashi regarded them seriously.

"I've decided we're going to shift focus on training for a little while. I've been trying to observe you all to try and get a feel for what would suit you best. Instead, I want you to tell me what you want to focus on."

The team was shocked by their lazy teacher's unusually serious attitude. Still, they weren't about to waste their opportunity.

Sakura was the first to speak. "I would like to build up my chakra reserves. I am going to learn medical ninjutsu."

Kakashi was quite impressed. There were not nearly enough medical ninjas as it was. He would not have pegged her for that specialty, but he could tell right away it would be a good fit.

Sasuke was next. Initially he'd been intending to just demand Kakashi make him stronger. However, most any training would do that. If there was something specific to focus on though, "I also want to build up my reserves. I want to learn a lot of ninjutsu." Genjutsu had always been Itachi's thing. And taijutsu had never been and interest of Sasuke's.

Kakashi nodded. This made sense from what little he knew about his revenge-obsessed student.

Naru looked hesitant. She wasn't sure if it was a good idea to share what she wanted. What if Kakashi, underneath his lazy attitude, resented her for the Kyuubi? He could make sure she never achieved her goals. Still, she'd heard a lot of positive things about him, so she decided to give him the benefit of the doubt. "I want to be faster. I want to be faster than anyone has ever been."

Kakashi couldn't really put a name to the emotion he was feeling. It was a mixture of nostalgia, pride, and grief. How many times had he listened to Minato-sensei go on and on about seals and speed? He would have been so proud to see his daughter taking after him.

"Alright," he said to his team. "I'm going to need a few days to come up with a training regimen for everyone. In the meantime you are going to pick a taijutsu style and each of you is going to get a weapon."

The team looked at Kakashi, confused. Picking a taijutsu style made sense, but why did they need a weapon? Most ninja stuck to the basic kunai and shuriken.

Kakashi eye smiled. "You won't be experts or masters of your taijutsu for years. A weapon can help turn a battle in your favor. Also, ninjas with weapons end to be harder to fight."

Kakashi led them to a store and stopped short before entering. "This store is one of the only places in the Elemental Nations that specializes in chakra weapons. There is something unique about the composition that allows a person to resonate with the weapon. It is completely unique to each person. They say that the weapon actually chooses its wielder. When you go inside you are to close your eyes and focus your chakra. If something resonates, you will be able to find your way to it even with your eyes closed. If you don't feel anything we will go to another shop and see what might suit you."

Sasuke, Sakura and Naru were a little nervous, but they nodded resolutely. They entered and closed their eyes. It took several minutes to try and focus their chakra. Sakura managed first and was ecstatic to feel something resonate. She eagerly made her way over to it.

Sasuke was next and though he made sure to remain outwardly calm he was excited to feel a resonance. He made his way over and waited, keeping his eyes closed.

Naru was discouraged at how long it was taking her. She'd heard Sakura and Sasuke move and nearly gave up, thinking that there probably wasn't anything for her when she felt something reaching out to her. She went over as quickly as she could, overjoyed.

Kakashi gaped, not that anyone would have been able to tell. He had chosen not to tell his team, but it was quite rare for a weapon to resonate with a ninja. It's why they didn't bother going over it in the academy. Chakra reserves, affinities, hell, even a person's temperament, could affect these things. It was part of why the Seven Swordsmen were so feared. Their swords resonated with them and it made them exceptional. To see all three of his students resonate was unheard of. It truly felt like he had just witnessed the beginning of something incredible. Kakashi focused on the weapons his team and chosen and he felt his eyebrows raise up into his hairline. Well, his team never could be predictable, could they? Sasuke was actually rather tame, the most normal of them all for once. A katana was not unusual at all. His two female students on the other hand; Naru had selected a naginata which intrigued him. Sakura had actually selected a frankly enormous war hammer. He doubted she could actually lift the thing at this point. He'd have to focus on improving her physical strength for a while.

Sasuke and Naru were admiring their new weapons and looked around curiously to see what their teammates had done. Sasuke gaped at the sight of Sakura's hammer and Naru burst into giggles. The look on everyone's faces—including Sakura's—was just priceless.

The giggling knocked Kakashi out of his stupor and he quickly stepped forward to pay. He silently mourned his wallet. There was a small stipend for jonin sensei in order to purchase training equipment, but chakra weapons were hideously expensive.

"Naru," Kakashi said. "For now please seal these in a scroll. We will need to move them later, but right now we can keep them together. How good are you with seals? Would you be able to design personalized storage seals? Something only the four of us could get access to."

Naru quickly stepped forward to seal everything. She considered the question. "I can add a blood component. It's really practical because it means seals can never be used against you. I could make a tag or sew the seals into clothes. That or inscribe them on the skin."

Kakashi stared at his blonde student and decided then and there that he would need to brush up on his sealing. After Minato's death, Kakashi was considered Konoha's seal expert (Jiraiya didn't count since he was never around). He had a sneaking suspicion that Naru's knowledge would soon surpass his, if it hadn't already.

Sakura was surprised, "I didn't think storage seals could be done on skin."

Naru's grin was almost feral. "Most people don't That's why they can be disarmed. No one will ever be able to completely disarm me."

The ominous statement caused the rest of the team to shiver, very thankful that she was a part of their team. If even half of what she said was true, then seal masters made the most terrifying enemies and the very best friends.


	3. Need to hide

Sasuke was spread eagle on the ground, panting. It had been almost four months since that day I the weapon shop. Kakashi had been as good as his word since then. Though he still showed up late, when he finally arrived he worked them hard. They worked on physical strength and speed, but also problem solving, dexterity, flexibility, trapping, planning evading and stealth. The last one was why Sasuke was currently so tired. It had started out simply enough, until Kakashi had tried to put Naru in charge of the lesson. That itself was no unusual. Whenever they went over a lesson one of the genin was very familiar with Kakashi had them lead the lesson. It was meant to foster teamwork and give them a taste of what is was like to lead a team. It also challenged their own understanding of the subject as they tried to explain it to other people. For some reason when Kakashi had made the suggestion Naru had smiled and preceded to act like a complete idiot. It was a little embarrassing and a lot humbling for Sasuke to realize Naru was not the idiot he had always believed and so it was actually rather off-putting to see it now. She had told them all the basic academy information about how to be quiet and hide scent. Kakashi had given her a hard look which she had responded to with her sunniest smile. That was what had led to their current game—hide and seek. Only it was more like trying desperately to hide from their insane sensei.

Sasuke glanced over at Sakura who, despite making huge leaps in her stamina in the last couple months, had collapsed almost half an hour ago. She looked just as tired as he was. There had been no sign of Naru since the game started almost three hours ago. That probably explained why Kakashi had wanted her to be the one to go over stealth. The jonin was standing in the clearing now and it was obvious that his inability to find his last student was irritating him.

With a frustrated sigh he called out, "Alright Naru, enough, come out."

Sasuke, if he'd had any energy left, would have flinched as Naru appeared right by his head. She was sitting down calmly, not panting or dirt-stained like her teammates, it looked as though she had just been sitting there the entire three hours. Apparently Kakashi noticed as well and the irritation in his eye became full blown fury.

"How?" he barked, too angry to form a complete sentence. He'd known about her ability to disappear, but he had, perhaps arrogantly, assumed that now that he knew to be alert he'd be able to find her. That he hadn't was a blow to his ego. It also frustrated him that she refused to tell them how she was doing it.

Naru beamed, pretending not to know what he wanted. It only made him angrier. He grabbed his student by the arm and shunshined to an empty training ground. He could see that Naru was on edge at being alone with him when he was angry, so he made an effort to try and calm down.

"Naru," he said gruffly, "I've tried to be patient and take the time to earn your trust, but enough is enough. You seem to have discovered some way of completely disguising yourself and nothing can find you. Did you know even the Byakugan can't see you?" Surely if he spelled it out to her she'd come to her senses and realize that she had to share her technique with the village.

"I did know that, actually."

Kakashi was shocked at the iciness of her response. Even after learning that she played up her cheerful idiot persona, Naru had still remained fairly bright. To see her so cold and hard was disquieting. Her eyes were hard as well, but also wet with unshed tears.

"I will not share what I can do with this village, not when they're the reason I learned it."

Kakashi was so confused, but he also sensed that Naru was on some kind of edge and he desperately wanted to keep her from going over it. "What do you mean?" he asked, as gently as possible.

"This village hates me." Kakashi's heart clenched at how matter of factly that was said. No emotion, just calm acceptance. "The Old Man can say whatever he wants to about the law to keep the seal a secret was to protect me, it never did. I have been beaten in the street, cursed at and hunted by the people in this village. I know that no one here can find me when I hide. That's the entire point. I know the Inuzuka can't smell me because I've been hunted by the Inuzuka. I know that the Sharingan can't see me because I've been hunted by Uchiha. I know the Byakugan can't see me because I've been hunted by the Hyuga. I know the kikaichu can't find my chakra because I've been hunted by Aburame. If someone else learns how to do what I do, then they might be able to get around it. I finally have a way to stay safe from the village that wants so badly to hurt me, and I will not give that up."

Kakashi honestly wanted to cry. He also wanted to wreak bloody vengeance on the village he'd spent most of his life protecting. Naru was all he had left of his sensei and he sometimes wondered if she was Obito's reincarnation. They had the same attitude and will that he had so admired in his goggle-headed teammate. Hearing about what she had suffered through at the hands of the people he knew—a thought struck him and left him feeling cold. How many people he knew and trusted had been one of her tormentors? How would he even find out? And how could he work with them not knowing the answer was a firm no? It was so hard for him to picture the jonin he was friends with hurting this girl, but all ninja had their dark sides. And hadn't Kurenai lost her father to the Kyubi? A part of him wanted to deny that there was any chance at all, but the cynical part of him knew better. His denial was not based on fact, it was wishful thinking.

"How," Kakashi asked, shocking Naru with how broken he sounded. "How can you stand to be here? How have you not left already? You have to know you'd be able to stay hidden for the rest of your life. Why become a ninja for Konoha? Why protect the people who have been so cruel to you all your life?"

Kakashi hung his head, afraid to hear the answer. After what happened to his father he honestly didn't think anything could ever shake his loyalty to the village, but he had been naïve. He knew he'd never see Konoha the same way again.

Naru knelt down and placed her hand on Kakashi's shoulder, "Because Konoha is what my parents wanted for me."

Kakashi started, looking at the girl in shock. Naru snorted, " Don't look so surprised. You can't really believe I wouldn't eavesdrop and sneak around. I found out the truth a long time ago. It's why I decided not to run away. You have no idea how close I was to doing that. I wanted to learn more about them and so I had to stay. I couldn't exactly ask anyone about them, so I had to be around to overhear people." Naru actually started to look embarrassed. "Like when people go to the memorial stone to grieve or reminisce."

It took a moment for Kakashi to realize that she was trying to confess to having spied on him at the memorial stone. If she had been…pretty much anyone else, he would have been absolutely furious. It made him uncomfortable to know that Naru had overheard him, but at the same time he couldn't be upset with her. In an effort to try and protect her from her father's enemies the Sandaime had actually forbidden anyone from telling her anything about her parents. Eavesdropping and overhearing were the only ways she would be able to learn anything at all. Even though he understood the hokage's reasoning it had never sat well with him that Minato and Kushina's daughter didn't know them. It made him feel good to know that he had been able to tell her a little about them. Although now he might want to share some of the happier stories. The things he mentioned at the memorial stone tended to be sadder, more bitter.

"Your father would have been so proud of you," Kakashi said, voice full of emotion. He watched her eyes widen and he cheeks flush pink. "He wanted you so badly, you were his little princess. He'd have spoiled you rotten."

Kakashi was kind enough to pretend not to notice as Naru wiped her eyes. She wanted for so long to hear those words.

After a few minutes Kakashi decided to change the subject. "I won't make you share your secret, but I need to know, if the team is ever in danger, can you hide them? Can whatever you do be used on them." He'd been hoping Naru would teach the other two, but as long as she could cover them he was okay.

Naru thought about it. "I think so, but I have never tried it."

When we get back to the training field, please try. I think the team has improved enough to go on a C-rank. I just want to make sure we are prepared."

They decided to walk back to the training ground rather than shunshin and when they arrived they help out their wrists for just a moment before walking through. Kakashi wanted to keep their progress a secret so he had asked Naru to set up privacy barriers all around the training ground. Naru made all the members of Team Seven a seal that allowed them to pass through the barrier. She explained that they could just add a drop of blood and then they wouldn't need to hold out their wrists every time. Kakashi had been the one to put his foot down about that. Blood introduced a volatile element to seals and he wanted a chance to observe her skills before he allowed his students to add blood to anything.

As they entered the field they saw what would have been a comical sight to anyone not in-the-know. Sasuke and Sakura were lifting weights, which wouldn't be strange, if they weren't showing such strain with a pair of five-pound weights. The truth, though, was that Naru had painstakingly carved a number of seals into the weights. They absorbed chakra which made them great for building reserves, but they also were layered with gravity seals which made them quite a bit heavier than five pounds. If he had to guess, Kakashi would say each weight was probably around ninety pounds by this point. Kakashi had surprised them when he announced that they would all receive some basic training in each other's weapons. He informed them that there would almost definitely be a point where they were separated from their own weapon and it was only practical to have a basic understanding of how to use something else. This meant that the entire team had to build up their upper body strength to wield Sakura's hammer. Naru had begun to wear leg weights in order to improve her speed and she had noticed that her stronger legs allowed her a firmer stance which made a stronger swing of the hammer and so they all ended up with leg weights as well. As Sakura and Sasuke weren't training in speed the way Naru was, their weights weren't as heavy as hers.

Kakashi was quite please to see that Sakura and Sasuke had not taken his absence as an opportunity to slack off. He was also pleased that while the two were obviously anxious about what he and Naru had discussed, they weren't demanding answers. He felt quite proud of the progress his team had made in the last few months.

Naru silently plodded over to where the two were sitting and grabbed her own weights. It had made Sasuke very angry when he realized that Naru's weights were almost three times as heavy as his, but she had put an end to his protests when she lifted Sakura's hammer with one hand. She had refused to comment on why she had such good upper body strength, but she still saw the value in trying to improve even more.

Kakashi looked over his team with pride. He noticed that Sakura was just about ready to increase her weights by five pounds each. He turned to look at Sasuke, but the boy had disappeared. When he glanced back he saw that Sakura was missing as well. If it hadn't been for the fact that he'd asked Naru to hide her teammates he might have thought that it was some kind of genjutsu.

Just as quickly as they disappeared they reappeared. He saw that Sasuke and Sakura did not appear to have noticed anything which was interesting. At any rate, Naru could conceal them which was what was important.

"Well team, as a reward for all your hard work, I've decided we're going on a C-rank mission. We're going to be escorting a bridge-builder to Wave country!"

He eye-smiled at his team, listening to Sakura's cheers when he noticed Naru's furrowed brows. "Is something wrong? He asked, confused.

"Isn't that a little dangerous for a C-rank?"

Kakashi frowned. Of all his students, Sakura was the one he thought would be the most concerned. Even then, it was a simple escort mission, not a bodyguard, in a land they were allied with. "It's just a simple escort mission. It's just a precaution against bandits. It's a good mission for rookies."

Naru frowned. Kakashi almost asked what was wrong when he heard her voice on the breeze telling him they needed to talk after training. He had tested the kinds months ago to determine their elemental affinities. He'd explained that elemental manipulation was a chunin skill, but it was better to start as soon as possible. He'd shared with them a special secret. Elemental affinities could be used for more than just jutsu. Ninjas with water affinities could breathe underwater, fire affinities had a resistance to being burnt, earth affinities could sense vibrations in the earth, lightning affinities could manipulate electrical impulses and wind affinities could manipulate air within the body. That meant they could literally knock the wind out of a person or they could send messages on the wind. Naru had manipulated the wind in her lungs to vibrate around her vocal chords and then had the wind carry the message right to him. The thing was, those little "tricks" were extremely advanced aspects of elemental manipulation. There was no way Naru should have been capable of that. He'd seen her struggle with cutting a leaf. After their discussion earlier he knew there was no point in asking for an explanation.

Thankfully, training was almost over anyway so Kakashi released them a little early with instructions on what to pack for the mission and when to arrive at the gate. As soon as Sakura and Sasuke were gone he turned to Naru. "What has you so worried? By all accounts this should be the perfect mission for wet behind the ears genin."

Naru bit her lip. "I don't know that anything will happen, but a bridge builder going to Wave would be in a lot of danger." At Kakashi's blank look she continued. "Gatou moved into Wave a few years ago. He runs a black market out of there. He has oppressed Wave and I can't imagine he will appreciate any attempts to free themselves from his grasp. A bridge would be a disaster for him."

Kakashi stared at her. He didn't doubt what she was saying and he vaguely recalled information about Gatou being in the Land of Water. "How do you know that?" he wondered.

Naru wouldn't meet his eyes. "I've entertained thoughts of rebuilding Uzushio. I've done some research into what would be needed to do so. Before Gatou, Wave would have been a valuable trade partner."

Kakashi frowned. It was bad for Konoha that Naru had plans to leave, but Uzushio had also been one of their greatest allies. And he remembered that Kushina had dreamed of reviving Uzushio. He knew that this was the kind of thing the hokage probably wanted to know right away, but he couldn't bring himself to do it. For the first time, Naru was opening up to him. He wouldn't betray the trust she was placing in him. Still, if what she said was true than the mission was indeed more dangerous than they'd been led to believe. The problem was, there was no way to explain how he suddenly knew about Wave's situation and they had already accepted the mission. It would be very bad form to back out now. Kakashi was very thankful his training had been as thorough as it was, his team would be well-prepared. He tried to imagine his team as they had been when he first got them. Only and idiot would have agreed to go on such an obviously dangerous mission with a fangirl with no real skill to speak of, a revenge-obsessed genin with a major superiority complex ad a girl he knew nothing about that was a flight risk. Really, with that and their complete lack of teamwork it would have been a disaster. It would have been just plain irresponsible to take a team like that on any mission far less one into hostile territory.


	4. Wave

Naru felt her eye twitching as she pointedly did not glare at the puddle. Kakashi had instructed Naru not to say anything about Gatou to Sasuke and Sakura. It would have been hard to explain, and he also saw it as a way to test their observational skills and their adaptability. Circumstances could change quickly for ninja and they were expected to be able to deal with any challenges that may arise. Naru had reluctantly agreed, though she'd been worried that something would happen, and she'd feel guilty for not warning them. But if this was the best they could do? It offended her a little to pretend not to see the puddle. It hadn't rained in two weeks! Even without her little trick she was good at hiding and traps. This was just pitiful. If anyone fell for this than she firmly believed they deserved to be caught. It pleased her greatly to see that Sakura and Sasuke noticed the puddle quickly. Sasuke seemed as offended by the obvious trap. Sakura was just confused. Was there another team headed this way? It wasn't unheard of to come across a trap meant for someone else. It was strange though, they were using an unpopular route due to the civilian they were escorting so ninjas tended to avoid it. But surely the trap wasn't for them. This was a low C-rank, the most they would be coming across would be bandits. She glanced at her teammates for confirmation and barely restrained a giggle at the irritation on their faces. To anyone who didn't know them well they appeared merely bored, but she could see that they were offended by such a poorly-planed trap. Sakura wasn't, though. While Naru might take offense at such a poorly hidden trap because of how much planning and detail she put into her own, Naru had been the one to take Sakura aside and explain to her the value of being underestimated. The simple fact of the matter was that as a young, pretty girl there were people who would not take her seriously. While she could let it irritate her (and it did) she could also see it as the blessing it was. Being underestimated gave her the advantage over her enemy. Like now, whoever this was thought they would be dealing with fresh-faced rookies and would therefore be taken by surprise when faced with true opposition. This was why Sakura had continued to take such good care of her hair and why she continued her beauty routine. She'd found that having silky hair and smooth skin had become less important to her as her training continued, but she knew just how important it was to keep up appearances.

Kakashi was very proud. He could tell that all three of his students were aware of the trap and he was pleased that they did not tip their hand at all. They moved into a formation around Tazuna, all the while making it seem totally natural. Sasuke and Naru even had a fake elbow fight as an excuse to move away from each other while making them seem as if they were not taking things seriously. His team was becoming quite efficient little murderous hell beasts and he could not be more proud of them. A part of him felt bad about his next task for them. An important milestone in any ninja's career was their first kill. Whoever this was waiting for them provided the perfect opportunity for his students to perform some field interrogation and then end the victim's life. It would be both better and worse to do it that way. When a first kill happened in battle a rookie could freeze up after which was very dangerous if that ninja had teammates eager to avenge their comrade's death. However, it was also harder when it was done in cold blood. Even without the fact that it allowed someone to beg for their life which could be hard for a rookie, it also meant they could see the exact moment when the life left their victim's eyes. It made the subsequent nightmares infinitely more traumatic. Kakashi tapped the corner of his book in a seemingly absent-minded manner, but he knew his students could hear the message. 'Spring trap, subdue enemies, gather information.' His students were all clever enough to realize what he meant by the last one. He saw some hastily suppressed anxiety in Sakura and even Sasuke needed a moment to fortify himself. He was glad to see none of them looked eager. While ninja certainly needed to be willing and able to do monstrous things for the sake of their village, it never really ended well when a person enjoyed it beyond simple professional satisfaction.

The team and their oblivious charge just passed by the puddle when the enemy ninja tried to attack. They were completely unprepared for the genin to launch a counter-attack. The blonde girl punched one of them so hard he was sent flying across the clearing to where Sasuke was already waiting. Naru engaged the other ninja while Sakura assumed a guard position around the surprised Tazuna.

Either their attackers were weak or just unable to overcome their surprise at being attacked because they were subdued very quickly. The ninja were quickly tied to a tree and the genin looked at each other and silently checked each other over before moving on to the next part.

"How do you want to handle this?" Naru asked quietly.

Sasuke glanced at Kakashi who gazed back at him, face completely neutral. Steadying himself, Sasuke said, "They both likely have the same information so we can use one of them as an example of what happens if they lie."

Sakura turned a light green, but she refused to back down. They'd run through hypothetical scenarios in training and she knew how they would proceed. Depending on how stubborn they were would determine Sakura's role. She was supposed to hang back and play the part of a genin way out of her depth. If Sasuke wasn't able to break him it would be her turn. She'd heal him "in secret" and slip him a drug that was known to lower inhibitions and could act like a sort of truth serum. After confirming it was working, Naru would take over. The girl had a knack for gathering information. She'd seen he girl work on previous clients who never seemed to notice how much they let slip.

Sakura made a show of not being able to look and, truthfully, she didn't want to. But another, stronger, part of her refused to leave her teammate alone right now. Sasuke had confessed to his teammates about his darker urges, how the thought of causing pain to someone made him feel alive. He'd been so ashamed, so afraid to become like his brother that he'd never spoken to anyone about his desires. Naru, shockingly enough, had been the one to offer him the greatest support. Sakura still didn't know what the girl had said to him, but Sasuke had been so relieved after that it almost didn't matter.

Luckily, the ninja weren't stubborn at all. They'd readily provided everything they needed to know and then some. Sasuke was almost disappointed at how easy I was, he didn't even need to break the other leg. Before the shame of that feeling had a chance to sink in Naru and Sakura were beside him offering their support. He would never admit to the relief or security their support afforded him.

Unfortunately, before any of the genin had a chance to relax Kakashi spoke. "Well it seems that we've gotten what we need from these two. Sakura, Sasuke, kill them."

The two genin blanched and Tazuna looked horrified. Naru, curious and feeling the urge to object on their behalf, asked, "Why them specifically?"

Kakashi saw the protective look in his student's eyes and let a little of his pride and approval shine through. "This is a good opportunity to get your first kills out of the way," he told them quietly. "Sasuke, with your history I think you might react badly which is why I want you to do this now in a controlled setting." Sasuke was pale, but he nodded, knowing that his sensei made a good point. "Sakura, you've made great progress since joining this team, but this is still something that you need to experience. This will determine whether you want to be a medic or a medic-nin." Seeing her confusion, he went on. "We have plenty of medics in the hospital who devote their lives to the healing arts. But we are in desperate need of medic-nins. Ninja who happen to be skilled healers but are also capable of performing a ninja's duty of fighting, stealing and killing. There is no shame in going down either path, but if you find that you simply cannot stomach the thought of intentionally ending a life it is better to know that now, so you don't continue wasting time learning the ninja arts only to abandon them later on."

Sakura nodded her understanding, feeling very grateful for Kakashi's thoughtfulness and consideration.

Kakashi turned to his final student. "It's unfortunate that we only have these two, but it is what it is. If we come across another opportunity like this, I will have you take your turn, but it's better if your teammates have this now rather than later."

Naru nodded. She understood and agreed with her sensei's logic. She was a little grateful for the delay as well. She wanted more time to strengthen her heart before she needed to end a life.

Sasuke and Sakura quietly withdrew their kunai ad approached the rogue ninja. In a surprising show of compassion, neither man tried to beg for their life. They'd known the moment they were caught that they would not survive the day. Sasuke reached out and gave Sakura's hand a squeeze. They moved in unison, both knowing that it would only be that much harder after seeing the reaction of whichever of them went first.

They each went for a simple slice along the jugular. For a brief moment Sasuke was standing in the Uchiha Compound and the blood on his blade was not some enemy ninja's, but instead some unnamed relative. Before he had a chance to panic, he was brought back to reality by a small sob to his right.

Sakura couldn't help the tears that streamed down her face. In the Academy they tried to desensitize the students as much as possible to the reality of taking lives, but there was only so much that could be done. Sakura was no prepared for how smoothly the blade dragged over the skin, how warm the blood felt on her hand or how the light in the ninja's eyes slowly faded away.

Naru stepped forward and pulled both of her teammates in for a hug. It spoke volumes that Sasuke allowed the touch. He felt cold, and while it had felt very good at the time (it frightened him how good it felt) the feeling had faded quickly and now he was left feeling empty. The warmth of his teammates was soothing, and it calmed him even as some part of him wanted to break down and just cry endlessly.

Kakashi's heart hurt a little seeing how affected his team was. It wasn't easy to order his students to do something he knew would pain them so much when what he really wanted was to keep them away from the evil realities of the world for as long as possible. Seeing his team seeking and receiving comfort from one another helped his guilt. He'd worried at first that his students would not be able to put aside their grudges from the academy, but to his relief they had come to bond with one another during training. The bonds you formed with your teammates during training, when you shared your strengths, weaknesses, successes, failures, tears and blood had a way of overshadowing everything else. Its why ninja bonded so quickly and more deeply compared to civilians. It's also why so much consideration went into the forming of genin teams.

Naru gave one final squeeze before she stepped back. Kakashi couldn't have said what precisely was different, but somehow Naru seemed to have an aura of authority. "Rule 25!" she barked out.

Kakashi was surprised at her callousness for a moment, but he could see the effect it was having on her teammates. They both pushed their feelings away until later when they were able to properly cope. They were, after all, in the middle of a mission and they could be attacked at any moment. They simply did not have time for this.

"She's right," he said, a touch regretfully. "This is one of the hardest lessons you will learn as a ninja, you need to put the mission first. You will have a chance to grieve and scream and cry and break down, but not now. Now you need to act like nothing's happened and perform at your best."

Sasuke and Sakura nodded. They understood. They were lucky to have gotten the time they had, but it simply could not continue.

Tazuna was clearly unnerved by their actions and he flinched a little when they surrounded him. That flinch felt like a slap in the face to Sakura and judging by the angry glares of her team they knew it. Before they could say anything, Sakura started to walk, and everyone followed suit.

Soon enough they were at the edge of the water boarding a small boat. They did so in silence as Tazuna continued to shoot them looks of horror, disgust and pity. It was a relief when the boat ride was over because Tazuna was no longer able to stare at them. That relief was short lived as they heard the unmistakable whistle of a blade swinging through the air at great speed.

"Down!" Kakashi yelled as he grabbed Tazuna. The genin dove to the ground as a massive sword flew over them.

"Well, well, what do we have here?" A sinister voice asked.

"Zabuza Momochi, demon of the Bloody Mist." Kakashi growled, he looked more serious than they'd ever seen him before. It made sense, his team had never been in so much danger before.

It seemed as though Zabuza was going to say something, but before he could Kakashi was already attacking. Zabuza cursed and jumped away from the projectiles.

"Stay on your guard," Kakashi ordered. "Zabuza is a master of silent killing so keep yourselves alert."

Zabuza let out a menacing chuckle. "So it seems you've heard of me after all. Well that just takes all the fun out of it. Hidden Mist Jutsu!"

A thick mist appeared, completely obscuring their vision.

"There are seven points on the human body," a voice said, though it was impossible to tell where it was coming from. "Spine, heart, neck, lu—" the voice abruptly cut off and for a tense moment the genin were unable to hear anything. Their relief at hearing their sensei's call of "Wind Style: Great Breakthrough," was tangible. They were shocked to see him standing over Zabuza's dead body once the mist blew away.

Naru, trying not to let the dead body affect her, asked, "How did you find him so quickly, Sensei?"

Kakashi moved over towards his students only once he was sure Zabuza was dead. "Naru, do you think you can seal the body?"

Naru, Sakura and Sasuke looked at their teacher, confused.

"When ninja betray their village hunter-nin are sent after them. When they are killed the head is presented as proof of death, but the rest of the body is destroyed. There is a lot that can be learned from an enemy's corpse. We have the opportunity and we shouldn't let it go to waste."

Naru nodded and moved forward, pulling out a scroll and a brush.

Nodding his approval, Kakashi continued, "And to answer your question, while it was never my focus, I am still quite an accomplished tracker. I've been brushing up on those skills lately," he made a point of looking at Naru, "and once he started talking it was simple. He knows how effective he is with that technique; my guess is he let that make him arrogant. He underestimated me and that was what let me kill him. Being underestimated is one of the greatest weapons you have. I promise you that not taking your opponent seriously has killed more ninja than any weapon ever has. Remember that."

After Zabuza's body was sealed away they set off again but were quickly beset by what appeared to be a hunter-nin. Kakashi stepped forward to explain that Zabuza was dead, but the minute he said as much the ninja flew into a rage and attacked them.

Kakashi cursed. He'd worked on dodging with his students, but that had been mostly kunai and shuriken. Senbon worked differently and they would likely be hit by at least a few. If they were poisoned that would be a disaster. That meant he needed to focus on deflecting weapons rather than fighting the new threat.

To Kakashi's shock and disapproval Naru began to engage with the rogue ninja. Naru made use of the speed they'd been working on for the last few months as she weaved her way through the senbon, displaying some truly impressive flexibility. He was reluctantly impressed by her skill. It was clear she did not know how to properly deflect the senbon, but it did not appear to be an issue.

Naru grit her teeth. It was not easy to dodge all of these needles. She had to admit that it would definitely make a good training exercise, but just because Kyubi metabolized poisons so quickly she never felt the effects didn't mean she wanted to risk getting hit. Kyubi always whined so much when he had to put extra effort into healing her.

Naru jumped up into a tree so that she was level with the hunter-nin. Based on how carefully he was keeping his distance she could probably defeat him in close combat. The problem was, he seemed to know that too and made sure to move back every time she tried to get closer. Fine then. She may prefer close range, but she could still fight middle range.

Naru concentrated her chakra to her hand, shaping it into long needles similar to the senbon her opponent was using. These needles, however, were tinged red. "Chakra Needles!" she shouted, throwing the glowing weapons. The rogue ninja clearly was not expecting that and though he tried to dodge, he wasn't quite fast enough. He was not prepared for the sudden burning pain and heaviness in the arm tat was injured. He'd seen her make the needles, they were just chakra, how had they been poisoned? With his injury he was unable to dodge a new wave of needles. It felt like he was burning alive, what was going on?!

One more wave of needles and the hunter-nin was little more than a writhing mass on the ground. To the shock of the Konoha ninja the areas where the needles had impacted looked like they were melted. Naru moved forward and kneeled next to the enemy ninja. She refused to look at her teammates as she removed a kunai from her pouch. When Kakashi didn't move to stop her she quickly and efficiently sliced the enemy's throat. It may have just been her imagination, but she could swear she heard a whispered "thank you" before the boy went still.

Kakashi squeezed Naru's shoulder gently but urged her to seal the body quickly and move on. Unfortunately Naru would have even less time to cope than Sasuke and Sakura.

"We need to move," Kakashi ordered. Sakura picked up Tazuna, who looked about ready to pass out and they took off towards his house.

Kakashi was pleased to note how much effort he had to exert to keep pace with Naru. Her speed was coming along nicely. Another year or two and he doubted he'd be able to keep up with her at all. This had the added bonus of keeping their conversation private without it being obvious.

"What was that?" he asked quietly, hoping Naru wouldn't pretend not to know what he meant.

Naru glanced at him but looked away quickly. "I've known about the Kyubi for years," she admitted, ignoring Kakashi's surprise. "I've done some experimenting with its chakra. It seems that the Kyubi's chakra can be highly corrosive. I have a resistance to it, but it can do serious damage. So I tried coming up with an attack that would take advantage of that. You saw the result."

Kakashi was actually impressed. It was no secret that a biju's chakra was actually poisonous to humans. That was one of the reasons jinchuriki were treated so badly. Many believed that such prolonged exposure to such toxic chakra would corrupt a person. To his knowledge, no jinchuriki had ever tried to weaponize that before. Most tended to try and downplay their status in order to fit in. And when they did use it, they used it like regular chakra. He'd never even considered someone creating a weapon made of it.

They arrived at Tazuna's house and Naru set up a quick barrier seal that should keep them protected.

The team left Tazuna to be fussed over by his daughter as they retreated to a room upstairs. Now that they had reached relative safety, they could finally allow themselves the luxury of dealing with the day's events.

Kakashi wrapped his arms around his students and was not surprised when even Sasuke finally succumbed to tears.


	5. He's like me

"The Chunin Exams?" Sakura asked, surprised. It was very rare for rookies to be recommended in their first year.

Kakashi nodded, handing them the forms. "You guys are more than ready for this. Your training has made you strong enough to be chunin, but it was your mission in Wave that shows you have what it takes to be chunin."

Team Seven grimaced. Wave had been hard on all of them. Each of them had experienced their first kill which would have been bad enough, but when the bridge was almost complete Gato unleashed a small army of thugs who attacked the town, forcing the entire team to respond. They had each killed at least a dozen people in the ensuing slaughter. It had been a very rough introduction to the realities of ninja life.

Kakashi grimaced in commiseration. "You've proven that you can handle killing, but that wasn't what I meant. Clients lie. Sometimes, I would even venture to say most times, you go on missions with incomplete or inaccurate information. You showed that you can adapt and survive in uncharted waters. That's no small feat."

Kakashi told them to take the rest of the day to decide whether or not they wanted to participate and left them to themselves.

Sasuke looked at his teammates and gestured for them to follow him. After returning from Wave none of them had been quite able to separate. Sasuke had turned to head towards the Uchiha compound, but the thought of not knowing his team was safe, the thought of being alone in that place had been paralyzing. He'd turned around and found them just as stuck. He'd hesitantly invited them to spend the night and they'd been very relieved and accepted quickly. Sakura has eventually gone back home, but when Naru revealed that her place almost never had hot water, the electricity went out often and that the windows and door were often vandalized Sakura and Sasuke had insisted she make the move permanent. Sasuke was honestly surprised how much he enjoyed no longer living alone and Naru had certainly enjoyed her much improved living space.

They were just passing by the market when they heard a shout. Naru frowned. "That sounds like Konohamaru."

They moved towards the sound and were quite angered to see a teenager holding the boy in the air and poised to strike."

"What do you think you're doing?" Sakura demanded angrily, drawing a kunai.

Kankuro snorted derisively, "This punk ran into me, so I'm just going to teach him a little lesson."

Naru darted forward, faster than they could see. She sliced her kunai up the length of Kankuro's arm, forcing him to lose his grip and drop Konohamaru.

"You bitch," he seethed. His arm was too damaged for him to use his puppets otherwise he would have attacked her. He considered going for a kunai anyway but saw that the girl's teammates had surrounded him and Temari and were ready to defend the girl.

Naru glared at him, holding her kunai in a reverse grip. "You need to come with us. We're taking you to see the hokage."

Temari wanted to curse. They were in Konoha for five minutes and already Kankuro was messing things up. They couldn't afford to draw this kind of attention to themselves. "I'm sue that's not necessary," she said nervously. "Kankuro was just messing around a little."

Sasuke scoffed. No one in this village considered attacking children "messing around." And the ninja were very protective of their civilians.

Naru smiled sweetly, her voice positively dripping with honey. "And you can explain that to the hokage when you tell him all about how you attacked his grandson."

Temari and Kankuro paled. The hokage's grandson!? This was so bad. Before they had a chance to say anything further and apathetic voice behind them said, "You're a disgrace to our village."

Naru glanced up at the boy in the tree and the moment she saw him she knew what he was. She was certain he knew as well. She felt Kyubi stirring in her mind and she was sure he felt the stirrings of his own demon. They locked eyes and she felt a kinship with this boy. He was someone who understood what it felt like to be hated and scorned for something you didn't even do. To be reviled and shunned and not understand why. To try and try but never be able to make people like you.

Without saying a word she knew his names was Gaara and she knew he knew her name was Naru. She was so deep in her thoughts she didn't react to the sand team leaving. Her teammates wanted to stop them, they had just assaulted a child, but were more concerned over Naru's strange behavior. She didn't respond to either of them right away and they were concerned about what had caused this reaction.

Sakura made sure Konohamaru was okay before they continued on their way to the Uchiha Compound. Once they were safely inside Sasuke rounded on the blonde. "What the hell was that?" he hissed.

"He's like me," Naru said, slightly awed.

Sakura frowned, sharing a look with Sasuke. "What do you mean?"

Naru finally seemed to snap out of her daze. "He's a jinchuriki."

Sakura inhaled sharply. The discussion about jinchurikis had happened by accident. After their initial enthusiasm for learning seals Naru had been giving them lessons. Even Kakashi participated in the lessons, though he did not attend all of them. That had been one of the ones he'd missed. Naru had been reviewing the specialty groups within seal symbols and she mentioned which groups were used for sealing demons. Sakura had wondered aloud why anyone would seal a demon rather than kill it like the fourth had. Naru was quiet for a few moments before she explained to them what a jinchuriki was. Sakura was horrified. She'd been absolutely furious at the idea of a person being turned into a weapon. Sasuke had been the one to figure it out. "That's why the villagers treat you the way they do, isn't it?"

Naru told them the truth, though she was afraid of their reactions. They surprised her though, Sasuke had a lot of questions, but mostly they were angry for her. She told them about how she'd met the Kyubi when she was younger after beating almost killed her and that they had been in contact ever since. They'd been more concerned about the fact that she'd ben four at the time than the fact that she was talking to the demon that attacked their home. Sakura and Sasuke began training harder than ever because of their fierce desire to protect their teammate from ever being attacked again.

Sasuke frowned. "That must be why the other two looked afraid. They only see the demon when they look at him."

Sakura scowled. Surprising both of her teammates, Sakura had become fiercely protective of Naru. Hearing that another jinchuriki was being mistreated made her blood boil.

Sensing how high tempers were, Naru suggested they have a three-way spar. The Uchiha's had a private training ground they could use and Naru had already put up privacy seals to keep others out. They were going to dominate this exam!


	6. Forest of death

Team Seven waited quietly by their gate. When they were leaving the tent after receiving their scroll Naru had slipped back in and stolen an Earth scroll. If anyone tried to accuse them of cheating, well, a wise ninja never let an opportunity pass them by. Not for the first time Sasuke envied Naru's ability to just disappear . Even after sharing the truth about Kyubi, Naru had refused to disclose what she did in order to disappear. Sasuke had seen the desperation in her eyes and made sure never to push the issue. Didn't stop him from wanting to though.

"Do we want to head straight for the tower or do we want to try and eliminate some competition?" Sasuke asked.

"I think we should head for the tower. There's no real benefit to attacking the other teams." Naru said.

"I agree," Sakura said, just as the bell went off.

Team Seven ran into the forest. Thanks to Naru's speed training they were all faster than any rookie had any right to be.

An hour passed in silence until out of nowhere a huge gust of wind blew in, threatening to send them all flying if they hadn't used their chakra to stick to the branches.

"Ku ku ku, what delightful, smart children you are."

Team Seven looked at the girl who had just attacked them. Something about her felt…off.

"Where's your team?" Sakura demanded. She couldn't sense anyone nearby which bothered her.

"Oh I didn't think it necessary to get them involved. I just had to come see little Sasuke for myself."

Naru and Sakura tensed up. They'd been warned that as the only remaining member of a bloodline (save the one that went crazy and murdered everyone) Sasuke was a prime candidate for kidnapping. A foreign ninja that "had to see" Sasuke was cause for major concern.

"Who the hell are you?" Sasuke asked rudely. If this was a kidnapping it meant his teammates were in danger.

A huge grin split the girl's face. "I'm so glad you asked, child. I am Orochimaru of the Sannin."

Naru paled. This was so bad.

Orochimaru smiled. "I see you've heard of me. I must say, you look very familiar child, what's your name?"

Naru drew a kunai. She didn't dare tell him who she was. Kyubi'd told her about how Orochimaru felt betrayed by being passed over for hokage and the crimes he'd been accused of before fleeing. If he found out she was the daughter of the man who'd surpassed him, he might kill her for revenge or spite.

"Oh? Well if that's the way you want this to go then by all means."

A wave of KI crashed over them. Sasuke and Sakura were paralyzed by sheer fear. Kakashi had been building up their exposure to KI, but this was on a whole other level. They could literally see their deaths unfolding before them.

Naru pushed past the fear with practiced ease. She'd been exposed to people's scorn, disgust, hatred and disdain all her life. It was more familiar to her by now than any positive emotion would likely every be. She reached over and "zapped" her teammates with a tiny bit of Kyubi's chakra. There wasn't enough to hurt them, but the chakra was different enough to pull them from the trance they seemed to be in."

Orochimaru hummed thoughtfully. "That's very interesting, my dear."

Naru shuddered. The last thing she wanted was for Orochimaru to consider her interesting.

Sasuke shook off the remainder of the fear and flashed through some hand seals. "Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu!"

Naru quickly followed with "Wind Style: Great Breakthrough!"

The wind hit the fire and what started as a decent-sized fireball was now a huge wildfire.

Naru grabbed Sakura and Sasuke and physically dragged them with her until they started running. She let go only for a moment. She used that time to summon what looked to be over a thousand clones. A third of them transformed into Sakura and another third transformed into Sasuke. The hundreds of copies of Team Seven all ran in different directions. Once that was done, she hugged them both close to her and went still.

Sakura felt like her heart was going to explode. Why the hell weren't they moving? Sure Orochimaru might go for the clone teams, but shouldn't they use the time to escape?

Sasuke apparently thought the same as he hissed, "Idiot, we need to get out of here before he finds us."

Naru grimaced. "He won't. It's not exactly easy to hide you guys and I'm not sure it won't slip if we start moving. I want to make sure that freak isn't around when we do. We're going to move towards the tower very slowly and carefully. I'm not taking any chances."

Sakura and Sasuke were shocked. They had no idea that whatever Naru did could work on other people. They glanced around. Nothing looked different. There was no sign of a jutsu or illusion being used. And they didn't see Naru make and hand seals or activate any seals. How was she doing it?

After a tense few minutes that felt like hours, Naru told them they were okay to move. Naru kept a hold of their hands as they slowly moved towards the tower. At that pace it took them several hours. For once, Naru refused to speed up.

The tower was in sight when Sakura hissed, "Look!"

They stopped and looked where Sakura indicated. There was a masked figure, only barely visible.

Surprisingly, Naru seemed relieved at the sight. "That should be the ANBU. We should be safe now."

Sasuke raised an eyebrow. "Why would ANBU be here? How would they know something was wrong?"

Naru laughed. "My clones weren't just a distraction. They were supposed to find anyone that could help. Some went to the hokage, some went to T&I, some went to the ANBU HQ. Orochimaru is a missing-nin. Even if we weren't in danger, we have a duty to report his location. I'm a little surprised we haven't seen someone sooner."

They entered the tower and Naru finally let go of her teammates.

Naru laid down on her bed with a sigh. After summoning Iruka-sensei Team Seven had been escorted to a room inside the tower for a meeting with the hokage. He'd questioned them extensively about their encounter with Orochimaru and when they got to the part where they escaped, he leaned forward, eager despite the circumstances. His face fell when all three members of Team Seven looked right at him and said, "It's a secret." Kakashi hid his smirk at the hokage's disappointment. He'd obviously been hoping Sakura or Sasuke would spill the beans on Naru's little trick. He knew better. Even if they did know they wouldn't share. They might not have heard what he did, but they knew how important Naru's secrets were to her.

"Not really what I was expecting from the Chunin Exams," Naru said.

Sakura and Sasuke snorted. That was an understatement to say the least. A rogue Sannin infiltrating the exam to try and kidnap one of them had definitely not been on the waiver they signed.

Kakashi chuckled to himself. It seemed like his team was set to never have anything go according to plan. He was thankful that Naru had managed to escape from Orochimaru and save her teammates at the same time. She was probably the only person in the entire forest who could have done it. She didn't know it, but Naru had just earned her promotion to chunin, regardless of how she performed in the tournament.

"How do you do it, anyway?" Sakura asked. She was reclining on her bed but propped herself up on her elbows. "I kind of thought you used a seal to do it, but I didn't see anything like that in the forest."

The room went deathly still. Kakashi and Sasuke were shocked Sakura just came right out and asked while Naru was debating within herself. She _trusted_ her team. She'd told them so many things that she had sworn she'd never tell anyone. Was she willing to part with this one? Kakashi had never shared her desire to rebuild Uzushio which made her reasonably sure he wouldn't share this one, especially when he knew why she had had to learn it.

With a deep breath Naru took the plunge, "To tell the truth, I don't really know exactly what it is that I do," she ignored Sasuke's sharp inhale and Kakashi's intense focus. "When I was little, I hated being in the orphanage, but I didn't really have anywhere to go. Anywhere I went people were so angry and they would try to hurt me. So I found a place, this little hidden clearing that was full of wildflowers, a small little brook and surrounded by trees. I spent so much time there, just smelling the flowers, hearing the bubbling of the water, it was so alive. At some point I started to notice that I could feel all of it. The clearing had this energy, this vitality that was present all around me. It was so warm and loving and happy. I would spend entire days just feeling the life and joy around me. One day I was being chased by some villagers and I made a wrong turn and ended up in a dead end. I was so scared, and I just wanted some comfort, so I tried to reach for the energy and wrap it around me like a hug. I was surprised by how easy it was and I tried to just focus on it and not on what was about to happen. I noticed after awhile that nothing hurt so I looked up. I could see the villagers looking around and I heard them cursing, wondering where I went. I didn't understand right away, but it happened again and then I started to realize the truth. When I wrap the energy around me no one can hear, see or smell me. It's harder to wrap the energy around others because I'm not as familiar with your bodies. But I really don't know what it is."

Kakashi was absolutely dumbstruck. Naru had accidentally discovered natural energy. She was halfway to being a sage! It was only pure dumb luck that she'd never tried to channel the chakra and turned to stone. But this explained everything. Sage chakra was so far beyond regular chakra that it was impervious to the Byakugan and the Sharingan. And it was little wonder that nobody recognized it. Jiraiya was likely the only one who might recognize what was going on, if even then. Nobody would have even have thought that Naru might be using natural energy and even if they did, there was no way to try and search for it.

"That is absolutely amazing Naru. However, I forbid you from teaching your teammates how to do it."

This started Sasuke and Sakura, who immediately protested. Kakashi cut them off with a wave of his hand. "I know what you're doing Naru. It's called natural energy. It's what sages use to power their jutsu. It is incredibly powerful, but it is also very dangerous. I've never heard of anyone accidentally discovering it. It is an honest miracle that you've been able to safely manipulate it, but I don't know if your teammates could a slip with natural energy can kill you. Neither of us have the knowledge necessary to prevent a disaster so I cannot allow you to teach them something so dangerous. And do not try to channel that energy. You've avoided disaster by only wrapping it around you, but do not try to channel it without someone who knows what they are doing."

"Alright Sensei." Naru answered. She was thrilled to finally know what it was she'd been sensing all these years, but she was a little disturbed to hear how dangerous it was. What might have happened if she'd ever tried to use that energy?

There was a part of Sasuke that was angry Kakashi was stopping him from learning Naru's trick, but a larger part of him was just happy Naru had finally trusted them. It had been surprisingly hurtful to know that Naru was keeping secrets from them. Even now he knew there were things she wasn't sharing with them, but it made him feel good to know she was willing to open up to them. He suspected part of his problem came from their living together. It had not been easy for him to open up his home to her ad it wasn't easy adapting to living with someone again. Naru had seen him drinking tea at two in the morning after a nightmare, she'd seen him cursing up a storm from stubbing his toe of all things, his messy bedhead in the morning. He had felt safe despite also feeling very vulnerable and it had hurt to know that Naru didn't feel safe enough to be vulnerable with them.

Sakura was happy to have her answer, but it didn't astound her the way it did the rest of the team. She didn't really have many secrets of her own and she believed in being honest with your team, but it hadn't really bothered her that Naru refused to share the secret of her disappearing. She'd mostly been irritated that she couldn't figure it out on her own. She was glad Naru told them. Sakura knew how hard it was for Sasuke that Naru didn't trust them. Despite what people might think, Sasuke was sensitive. He felt things deeper than a lot of people and his team's trust meant a lot to him.

"Alright team," Kakashi announced with a clap of his hands, "Get some rest. You still have three days before the exam is over. Might as well make the most of it."

Team Seven didn't even make a token protest. The day had been long, terrifying and exhausting. They fell into a dreamless sleep as their teacher kept careful watch over them.


	7. Prelims

"This seems…inefficient," Naru said, wrinkling her nose.

"What do you mean?" Kakashi asked mildly. He was very curious to hear the girl's perspective on the exam format.

"The idea of the Chunin Exams as war games makes sense, to an extent. And I supposed a tournament to entice new clients makes sense as well, but why the Chunin Exams?" At Kakashi's prompting Naru continued. "All of us might be chunin-hopefuls but we aren't chunin. And even if we are at that strength level, we don't have the experience a seasoned chunin has. Wouldn't it make more sense to have the Jonin Exams be how we show off? The jonin are the best of the best and even the ones who don't make the cut still show the power and skill level that can be expected from Konoha chunin. Since chunin make up the majority of the ninja population that suggest a certain level of competence from our entire force. Genin have the tendency to go all out with flashy dramatic moves that waste a lot of chakra. Yes, it looks impressive but anyone who knows what they're doing knows that means they're a sitting duck afterwards. It suggests the opposite, a certain level of incompetence, because that ninja is then completely helpless and defenseless. Is that really what we want to be showing people?"

Kakashi was proud. Few genin realized that their fighting style was completely impractical. They focused so much effort on their secret weapon that they fail to realize just how wasteful they were being. Those more powerful jutsu were only useful in the hands of chakra powerhouses. And it was good that Naru recognized the value of experience. Too many hot-headed rookies just assumed they'd be able to take their enemy on with their secret weapon and come out victorious.

Sasuke and Sakura were nodding along. Kakashi had been very thorough with his lessons and they all knew that, even as a team, they were far too inexperienced to hope to win against him. However, they also knew they'd received far more instruction from Kakashi than any of their former classmates. They might be the most experienced genin in Konoha, even over teams that had been together longer.

"You're right, to an extent," Kakashi said. "If we wanted to showcase our strength, the Jonin Exams are a good way to do it. However, civilians aren't there to watch us fight in the most conservative, efficient way possible. They like flashy. And when they see ninja throwing out those jutsu they interpret it as strength. And as for the other villages, we can show them how strong our genin are and it implies that our chunin and jonin are even stronger. And part of being a ninja is realizing that what we are living in now is not true peace time." Kakashi stared at them intently, this was important and they needed to treat it as such. "We are in a time of non-aggression. The last Great War devastated the ninja population in all the villages. Every village is trying to build their forces back up and can't really afford to start a fight. I firmly believe that once a village feels they have the upper hand they will attack. So, we give them a show of strength, but we keep our jonin secret. We hint at them through the genin. 'Look how strong the rookie is, his teacher must be really strong' that kind of thin. Between the Uchiha massacre and the Kyubi attack," he said quietly, ignoring Sasuke and Naru's twitch, "we are even lower on man power than we have ever been. We need the other villages to think we are as strong as ever. The best way to do that is misdirection."

Naru, Sasuke and Sakura stared at Kakashi in shock. It was frightening to learn how vulnerable the village was. And if they were understanding correctly, all out war could erupt with five to ten years. Alongside that fear they all felt a building protectiveness. No one would be taking their team from them and together they'd protect the village.

"First match of the preliminaries: Sasuke Uchiha vs Akado Yoroi." A raspy voice called out.

Before Sasuke could jump down from the balcony, Kakashi grabbed his arm. "The finals won't be for an entire month. Consider that before you start to show off." Translation: they'll have a chance to develop defenses to anything they see.

Sasuke nodded his understanding. He jumped off the railing and faced his opponent. Yoroi was also a Konoha ninja and given his age had been a genin for several years. Sasuke remembered Kabuto saying he'd taken the exams seven times. He wondered if his teammates had been the same every time. If so, they were likely incompetent if they were still only genin after at least three years.

Sasuke didn't want to let on how much he'd improved since the academy. They'd all gone to such lengths to hide their progress and he didn't want to waste it on a pre-lim. With that in mind, the moment Hayate called for the fight to begin Sasuke rushed forward with a burst of speed, drawing a kunai as he went. He smashed the ring of the kunai against Yoroi's head and the older boy collapsed in a heapless pile.

There was a beat of stunned silence. Everyone from Konoha knew that Sasuke was a rookie. It was unusual that all for the rookie teams had been nominated that year, but to see how easily he defeated a much older and more experienced enemy was just ridiculous.

Kakashi was smug. He'd gotten so much flak from other jonin about nominating his team and it was gratifying to see them being made to eat their words. He was also proud. Sasuke had definitely taken his words to heart, all he'd shown was his speed and it was next to impossible for someone to get up to Sasuke's level in only one month. Especially since Sasuke would continue his own training.

Sasuke calmly walked back up to the balcony, ignoring the other rookies who tried to get his attention, only relaxing when he was back with his team and he responded to their cheers with a small smile.

Sasuke, Sakura and Naru carefully observed the fights and commented to each other when someone did something particularly clever or something spectacularly foolish. Overall, they were not impressed with the showing from Konoha. Shino and Shikamaru had done fairly well and showed a talent for strategy, but Yoroi, Misumi and Tenten had just been embarrassing. Misumi and Yoroi had been arrogant and hadn't taken their opponents seriously. Tenten though had been pathetic. While she may be truly amazing with weapons, which she did not prove, the moment it was proven that her weapons weren't going to work she should have switched to another attack. Instead she kept doing the same thing over and over again. To them that suggested that she couldn't do anything else. And ninja that could only do one thing were often a liability because they just couldn't adapt.

Before they had a chance to discuss further, Kakashi pointed at the board. Sakura Haruno vs Ino Yamanaka was prominently displayed. Naru and Sasuke turned to face their teammate. They weren't concerned that she might lose, their former classmates seemed to have been quite lazy since graduating. However, they did know how much Ino meant to Sakura and were concerned for her. To their relief Sakura looked almost gleeful at the matchup. She was excited to show everyone what she was made of. Her teammates easily read the anticipation in her eyes and hid their smirks.

Sakura jumped down, facing Ino, showing no weakness. Ino was shocked at Sakura's boldness. Despite their rivalry Sakura had always been too shy or afraid to challenge Ino.

"To think it would come to this," Ino said, trying to connect with her friend. It was off-putting to see this strong, self-confident woman when she was so used to the weak, insecure girl she'd grown up with.

"Luck of the draw, I guess," Sakura replied. She knew she was putting Ino off balance and she was glad. Kakashi had trained them in misdirection and distraction. If she could keep Ino feeling off then she would not be able to fight efficiently. Sakura would not let and advantage go to waste.

Frustrated with the blasé response Ino shouted, "Why are you wearing your headband on your forehead? You were the one who wanted to wait until you could face me as a proper ninja." The question had clearly been tearing Ino up since she saw Sakura in the first exam.

Sakura raised an eyebrow. "I grew up Ino. I've taken my training seriously. I am facing you now. I'm not that same little girl who needed you to be my protector. I don't define myself by you anymore. I've outgrown you." Sakura felt bad about that last comment. She'd started off saying what she did to further rile Ino, but along the way realized it was true. Her friendship with Ino would need to change drastically if it continued. Her time with Team Seven had taught Sakura how to be strong. She did not want to go back to being weak. And Ino made her feel weak. Ino represented her weakness.

Ino looked like she'd been slapped. For a moment it looked like she might cry. Instead, her face twisted into a scowl. When Hayate called for them to begin she charged forward, trying to punch Sakura.

Sakura jumped back, increasing the distance between them. She ran a hand over the seal stitched into her fingerless gloves. She waited until Ino was running again and wouldn't be able to stop and she unsealed her war hammer. She'd been training for months and even now she couldn't hold it for very long. Nobody here needed to know that though. She secretly reveled in the looks of blatant shock and horror as she lifted the hammer and swung. She landed a solid hit on Ino and sent her flying clear across the arena. She hit the wall with a thunderous bang and slowly slid to the ground. It was unclear if the blow from the hammer or the collision with the wall was the cause, but Ino was unconscious.

There was a sizable pause as everyone just stared, but Sakura pointedly cleared her throat, causing Hayate to startle before declaring her the winner.

Naru and Sasuke cheered, but most everyone else was too shocked at the sight of the small pink-haired girl wielding an enormous war hammer. That thing had to weigh at least four or five hundred pounds. Sakura casually sealed the hammer away and made her was upstairs. She quite enjoyed the looks she was receiving.

Just as she returned to her team the billboard announced the next match. Naru pulled a face while Kiba let out a cheer. Naru and Kiba had sort of been friends in the Academy, but Kiba could be a little sexist and he had a habit of talking down to Naru because of her grades. She wasn't sure whether to be annoyed at the fact that she had to listen to his drivel or excited for the fact that she would finally be able to hit him for it. Sakura and Sasuke, fully aware of how Kiba was, patter her back sympathetically.

Naru chose to walk down to the arena to give her a break from Kiba's trash talking. Unfortunately, it was a short walk and all too soon she was standing across from him.

"Man, and here I was hoping I'd get a chance to really show off. Don't worry, I won't hurt you too bad," Kiba smirked.

Naru's eye twitched but she forced herself not to react. A burst of inspiration had her grin stretching across her face. Anyone who knew her well knew to be very, very afraid, but Kiba wasn't exactly known for his intelligence.

Naru brought her hands together in a seal. "Sexy jutsu!"

A burst of smoke cleared to reveal a blonde-haired girl with very generous curves covered only with little wisps of strategically placed clouds.

Sasuke sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. Naru was a firm believer in exploiting her womanly wiles. They'd all noticed how comfortable she was in her body and Sasuke'd stumbled across her in nothing more than her underwear quite a few times since moving in together. The girl had no shame. Still, it was a fairly effective tactic and it had good shock value in a fight.

Blood sprayed from Kiba's nose, propelling him back into the wall. He slid to the ground with a happy smile on his face and a small line of drool dripping down his chin.

There was another pause as everyone processed what had just happened. Kurenai in particular looked very embarrassed. Kiba had been boasting and bragging while Naru had been walking and he'd just been defeated by a simple illusion. She was more than a little angry that Kakashi was letting his student go around flaunting herself like that.

Kakashi hid a smile. He knew most people would see that jutsu and think it some stupid, useless prank. He was its true value. Naru was exploiting a weakness many men had, and one that was ard to resist. He had his concerns about how easy she found being naked in public to be, but he refused to think about it too much.

Naru smugly made her way back upstairs. She'd learned a long time ago that sex was a weapon. It made her feel powerful to be able to turn the tables and be the one in control. And if it taught Kiba to keep his damn mouth shut. Well that was just an unexpected benefit, now wasn't it?

Sakura wanted to be angry with her teammate but she couldn't. Naru and Kakashi had both lectured on using sex as a distraction. Many older female ninja dressed provocatively for that very reason. Naru had just started sooner than most.

Naru accepted a hug from Sakura and nods of approval from Kakashi and Sasuke before turning her attention to the next fight. This fight made her angry. She'd never really been close to Hinata, the girl had avoided her a lot and when they were in the same room, she'd always seemed very uncomfortable. Still, it made her angry to see anyone, much less someone so close that Hinata called him brother, treat her like she was nothing. Hinata was trying, that was enough to prove that she wanted to be better. Trying to tell her that because she wasn't already good meant she never would be was disgraceful. It was a surprise to learn that Hinata thought so highly of her. She never would have guessed that she was such an inspiration for the girl.

Naru was almost relieved when it looked like Hinata was down for the count. When Hinata struggled back up and taunted Neji, part of Naru wanted to cheer her on, but another part of her wanted to curse at the girl for antagonizing the volatile boy who clearly wanted to hurt her. Naru saw the wild look in Neji's eyes and she was moving before he finished his first step. Naru used every last bit of the speed she had spent years developing.

Naru winced at the pain radiating through her chest. She appeared a split second before the jonin. Gai had Neji in a headlock, Hayate and Kurenai had each of his arms and Kakashi was right beside her. Neji had managed to land a solid hit on her due to her placing herself directly in front of Hinata. Neji looked shocked, but he recovered quickly, sneering, "So, special treatment for the main branch, I see."

Kakashi looked outright murderous. Gai actually winced when he saw his rival's face. Naru might have placed herself in the line of fire, but the fact remained that Neji had likely injured her badly. Neji was clearly not fit to be a chunin despite his talent. They didn't need to worry about being attacked by their own ally as well as any enemy. Kakashi gave Gai a dark look. This much bitterness and resentment should have been cause for not recommending the boy. Gai had no business recommending someone so unstable for a promotion. Gai silently accepted the rebuke. He'd hoped Neji would be able to put aside his feelings for his family, but it seemed as though his hopes were for naught. Odds were, if he had had anyone else as an opponent, he'd have been fine. He just couldn't pass up an opportunity to humiliate the main branch when it was just handed to him like that. Even if he realized he'd just ruined any chance he'd had of being promoted, Neji probably would think it was worth it to finally air his grievances.

Naru waved away a medic who tried to approach her. She let Kakashi escort her back upstairs where her teammates were waiting anxiously. Sakura immediately examined her using a diagnostic jutsu, but the damage was well on its way to being completely healed. Part of that was the Kyubi's influence, but part of it was a seal chain she'd created. Naru had been very surprised at how long bruises and cuts lingered on her teammates during training. She'd worked with Sakura to develop a formula that promoted healing. Most of the time it was inert, but it was capable of self-activating upon detecting an injury. They'd studied the chain extensively before applying it to the whole team. Kakashi had been leery at first but he listened to them and had been unable to find any potential dangers. The results had been incredible. Cuts and bruises were virtually gone overnight and even more serious injuries like broken bones or dislocations had healed in less than a day. Kakashi knew that one day every ninja in Konoha would bear that seal. They were keeping it a secret for now because Naru was not yet a Seal Mistress and if any of the other villages caught wind of what she could do she would be hunted. Her skills made her both highly desirable and exceedingly dangerous. It was best they wait until she was a little more formidable an opponent before sharing the extents of her talent.

Team Seven watched the fight unfold between Lee and Gaara. The sand shield was interesting. Kyubi certainly didn't shield Naru like that. They were very impressed with Lee's speed. He was just as fast as Naru, maybe even faster. Naru was both impressed and amused by the boy's leg weights. She supplemented her own weights with seals, but she wagered his weights were even heavier than hers. She almost drooled at the idea of a race between the two of them. She was relieved to see that he didn't seem to share his teammate's bad attitude.

Watching Lee was like a breath of fresh air for Team Seven. Aside from them, Konoha had not made a very good showing thus far, Lee was making up for that in spades.

Naru listened to Gai's bragging and she couldn't help but feel that the man might have done Lee a disservice by focusing solely on taijutsu. There were many specialties that required no chakra whatsoever. Trapping, stealth, espionage, weapons, etc. Lee had limited himself unnecessarily. Still, he was only a genin, he had plenty of time to grow and learn.

Naru listened as Gai told the story of Lee's struggles and determination and felt her heart go out to the boy. She admired anyone who had the guts to persevere and the will to work for what you want.

Naru winced when Lee's reverse lotus failed to take Gaara out. It was plainly obvious that there was no way Lee could win this fight. It was just bad luck that he'd gone up against a jinchuriki. Gaara's bloodlust was frightening. He was enjoying causing Lee pain and hearing his screams. The screams felt like they were stabbing Naru in the ear. Finally, she couldn't take it anymore.

"Stop," she said. Despite how quietly she'd spoken everyone seemed to hear her.

To everyone's surprise Gaara actually paused. He turned to face her. "No," he said in a dead tone. The sand started to move again and it was plain that this would be the kill shot.

White hot rage filled Naru. Most of it was hers, but a fair bit of it also belonged to Kyubi, who did not like being told no.

"Do as I say," she snarled, eyes turning red. "Know your place **Ichibi**."

Most every jonin in the room froze, as did the sand team. Even Kakashi was disturbed. He'd never seen Naru so feral and two potentially volatile jinchuriki was not a situation he wanted to be in. Did anyone even dare to get between them if they started fighting?

Most of the genin in the room didn't recognize the title, but they could see how tense the jonin were and grew tense themselves.

For a long moment nothing happened and they anxiously watched the battle of wills happening in front of them for any sign of danger. To everyone's shock and relief Gaara relented. The sand pulled back and Gaara turned to leave.

"Winner: Gaara of the Sand." Hayate called. Since Lee was technically still on his feet and hadn't conceded, he really shouldn't be calling the fight, but Lee was well past the point of being able to continue. And they needed to deescalate the situation as much as possible. Lee began to protest despite his beaten, exhausted state, but Gai quieted him and gently escorted him towards the medics. Gai was so grateful to Kakashi's blonde student. Lee had been saved from a crippling, life-changing injury. It made him even more ashamed of Neji's actions.

Sakura started to reach out to calm Naru down, but Sasuke shook his head. Back when he had first confessed to his violent urges Naru had confided in him that there were times where she wanted nothing more than to tear flesh from bone and that she longed for the feeling of blood under her nails and the sounds of bones snapping beneath her foot. It had reassured him at the time, knowing that he wasn't alone. After finding out about the Kyubi Naru had shared with him that Kyubi could influence her mood to a degree as he always had a fair amount of bloodlust and rage, it amplified her own. The last thing Naru needed right now was for a well-meaning teammate to accidentally trigger a defensive response when she was clearly riding high on the Kyubi's energy.

Kakashi gave Sasuke a look of approval. Sasuke did not appear to be afraid of Naru's half-feral state which was good, but he also was displaying appropriate caution. While he knew perfectly well that jinchuriki were not the mindless beasts so many believed, they could be dangerous. He also felt proud of Sakura who showed no fear of her teammate and had not hesitated to reach out and try to help.

Choji's match was largely ignored due to most everybody keeping an eye on Naru. Her eyes had faded back to blue and she was slowly losing the tension in her muscles. Naru couldn't quite bring herself to feel guilty about her actions. She knew that she had just caused a huge setback for herself. The people who might have been starting to think she might not be the Kyubi after all were sure to spread the news about her little episode.

All of the match winners made their way back into the arena for the drawing to determine who would face who in the tournament. Shikamaru, Temari and Kankuro edged as far away from Naru as they could without being too obvious about it.

Hayate cleared his throat. "The first match will be Naru Uzumaki vs Neji Hyuga." There were quite a few worried glances at that, but Naru smiled viciously, still not quite rid of the Kyubi's bloodlust. "Second match: Gaara of the Sand vs Sakura Haruno. Third match: Shino Aburame vs Kankuro of the Sand. Fourth match: Shikamaru Nara vs Temari of the Sand. Fifth match: Sasuke Uchiha vs Dosu Kinuta."

Team Seven shared a look, but didn't say anything. They calmly listened to the Hokage's parting speech and then left without talking to any of the other teams. They had training to do.


	8. Everybody hates Jiraiya

"Ow," Sakura moaned pitifully. Her muscles were so sore. To prepare for her match against Gaara they were focusing on building her speed. Lee had fared as well as he had primarily due to his ability to dodge oncoming attacks. This led to Sakura's legs being reduced to throbbing lumps of meat.

Naru, who had upped her own speed training right along with Sakura chuckled. "Want to head to the hot springs? The heat will help."

Sakura nodded, getting up slowly. The two of them stumbled along, talking quietly about the seal Naru was trying to develop to suppress the Ichibi for Sakura's fight. Naru was trying to include the others as much as possible but she was working beyond their level and at this point they were just slowing her down and they all knew it.

They arrived at the bathhouse and were about to walk in when Naru paused. Something seemed off to her. She carefully scanned her surroundings and she was absolutely furious when she spotted the man hiding in the trees. Naru may not have any problem showing off her body but she knew the same could not be said of most women. And it was one thing to be naked or scantily clad in public where you know people are watching and quite another to be spied on in private.

Naru nudged Sakura to get her attention and gestured to the pervert hiding. Sakura looked every bit as angry as her. Naru stopped her from storming over immediately. Someone hiding that well likely had shinobi training, meaning that they had cause to report him to the hokage. Naru looked around for an ANBU to flag down when an older man—wasn't that Konohamaru's teacher?—went charging past them shouting about degenerate perverts. Said pervert easily defeated the man, summoning a toad to crush him. Naru's breath caught. This must be Jiraiya the Toad Sage. She'd talked to Kakashi about him often. This man was her godfather and a Seal Master and the only person she might ever meet who knew anything about nature energy. She'd been cautiously excited to meet the man, but now she wasn't so sure she wanted to meet him. She hated perverts who had no problem ignoring consent to get what they wanted. He could argue all he wanted that his spying wasn't hurting anyone, but she doubted any of the women in there would agree.

While Naru debated whether or not she wanted to meet the man, Jiraiya was making his own observations. He'd been shocked to see Naru, he'd actually been stalling going to look for her. Jiraiya had spent the day before meting with the hokage about Orochimaru, which had led to talking about Naru. He'd been very angry when the hokage had come clean about Naru's life. He'd been keeping tabs on the girl all her life and now it turned out that everything he thought he knew was a lie. He couldn't deny that he was intrigued by the girl's disappearing act. If he could figure out how she was doing it he'd be able to expand his information network. He looked at his goddaughter and her teammate, saw the looks of anger and disgust and he couldn't help feeling hurt, which surprised him. It usually didn't bother him when people were upset about his debauchery. He certainly never let Tsunade's disgust stop him from getting his research done. What was it about this girl that made her different?

Naru saw Jiraiya staring at her and decided to put off meeting him until she had calmed down. Right now she was so furious that he'd used his training to spy of unsuspecting women that he could offer to teach her the secrets of her father's hiraishin and she'd spit in his face.

"Come on," she said quietly to Sakura. "I have a feeling we're not going to be enjoying the hot springs for a while."

The two of them turned around to leave and Jiraiya reached out to try and stop them when they all of a sudden disappeared. Naru carefully walked to Jiraiya's side, gauging his reaction. Kakashi said that Jiraiya could use natural energy, did that mean he would be able to figure out what she was doing?

Jiraiya was amazed. He'd had some theories about her vanishing, but they'd all just been blown away. She had completely vanished! It shouldn't be possible for her to have a way of hiding from even his detections. This was incredible. It was also a little frustrating since she used it to avoid talking to him. Did she know who he was? If so, how?

Naru and Sakura arrived at the Uchiha Compound and headed inside. It wasn't quite the same as hot springs, but the bathroom was large enough for them to soak their aching muscles.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Naru, stay back please," Kakashi said as he dismissed training for the day. He was not at all surprised and even a little amused when Sakura and Sasuke stayed as well.

"What is it, Sensei?" Naru asked even though she had a feeling she knew the answer.

"I heard your ran into Jiraiya yesterday," Kakashi said casually. "How'd that go?"

All three of the genin scowled. Sakura and Naru were angry that he would dare spy on women in the bath and Sasuke was angry that the man had almost spied on his teammates. He was very protective of them and he was very displeased to know that they couldn't go to the hot springs because of that pervert.

Kakashi was actually a little alarmed at the anger radiating from his students. While it was hardly unusual for people to be annoyed by Jiraiya's perversion, it was rare for people to be truly angered by it. It seemed he'd made a truly terrible first impression with all three of Kakashi's students.

Naru was very conflicted. On the one hand Jiraiya was an invaluable resource for seals and natural energy, but at the same time Jiraiya was supposed to be her godfather. Where the hell had he been when she was growing up? If she'd had a Sanin raising her would the villagers have dared come after her the way they had? And his spying bothered her on a level she knew was disproportionate to the crime. It reminded her of things she usually tried to forget. And that meant she has a hard time even thinking about the man. He made her uncomfortable. She could tell that her teammates were picking up on her discomfort and that was partly what was making them so hostile.

"Jiraiya could teach you a lot about seals in the next few weeks," Kakashi tried to cajole his youngest student.

Naru was quiet. Sakura put a hand on her shoulder protectively while Sasuke came close behind her, covering her back. They didn't know what it was about Jiraiya that upset her so much, but it didn't really matter. He upset her. That was all they needed to know to dislike him.

Finally Kakashi couldn't ignore the tension and asked, "What's wrong, Naru?"

Naru refused to look any of them in the eye as she mumbled, "I don't want to be alone with him."

It was said so quietly that they weren't sure they'd heard her right at first. When they realized what she'd said they all became immediately defensive.

"What did he do?" Sasuke demanded. Kakashi and Sakura were waiting just as intently for an answer.

Naru struggled for a response. "He didn't do anything to me. Yesterday was the first time I've ever seen the guy. Just, the peeping brought up some bad memories.

While he was relieved to hear that Jiraiya hadn't done anything to Naru directly to make her feel so uneasy, Kakashi had a feeling of foreboding as to the bad memories Naru was referencing. Though he wasn't sure he wanted an answer he asked, "What kind of memories, Naru?"

Naru froze. For a long moment the blonde girl didn't even breathe. When she finally started speaking, she sounded distant, as if she wasn't quite there mentally. "I hated growing up in this village," she said quietly. "People have hated me all my life and they weren't afraid to show it. I have been beaten, starved, choked, burned, electrocuted, drowned, stabbed and so much more." Naru ignored the devastated and enraged faces of her team as she continued. "By the time I was six I figured I knew all the ways there were to hurt another person. But I was wrong. There was a man who hurt me in ways I had never even imagined. He taught me pain and degradation the likes of which I'd never experienced before. I didn't know what it was for a long time. He was the first, but he was certainly not the last. It's haunted my dreams and my waking life like nothing else ever has."

Shock was the most prevalent reaction. None of them had been expecting this and even Kakashi was left floundering for what to say.

"What Jiraiya is doing by peeping in the hot springs is not the same thing, I know that. But his lack of respect for their consent, him using his strength and skill to violate their privacy, it brings up bad memories for me."

Kakashi decided right then and there to burn his Icha Icha books. He'd always known that Jiraiya researched for his books by peeping, but hearing it described by a victim, a victim who was like a sister to him, changed how he felt about it. He didn't think he'd ever be able to read those books again without hearing his student's pain and violation. And he absolutely did not want that man anywhere near his student if this was what he made her feel. Unfortunately that just wasn't possible. Jiraiya needed to teach her about natural energy and Naru needed guidance in sealing. She couldn't keep going by instinct, sooner or later her luck would run out and she could get hurt.

Sasuke was absolutely furious at the village. For perhaps the first time Sasuke was not angry with Itachi for his actions. If his family had been a part of Naru's tormentors, he might have killed them himself. He finally understood being so angry and disillusioned that you could turn your back on your village and your family.

"If you meet him, I want to be there." Sasuke ignored the startled surprise from Naru and refused to acknowledge the gentle pride and approval from Kakashi. "If he makes you feel uncomfortable you shouldn't be alone with him. Plus, if I'm there you have a witness in case, we need to sanction him. The council would likely dismiss any complaint you made, but they won't dismiss me."

Naru smiled warmly at Sasuke, delighting in the way his cheeks pinked a little at the attention. It truly did make her feel better at the thought of having a chaperone along, especially one who cared for her well-being. She wondered if the warm tingling in her chest was how most girls feel when their big brother was looking out for them.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Jiraiya had been rather put-out when he saw the Uchiha boy tagging along behind his goddaughter the first time. Kakashi had been rather tight-lipped regarding Naru's reluctance to meet with him, but he'd had a very strained look in his eye, as if he were holding something back. Jiraiya had tried dismissing the boy, but all he received for his efforts was a sneered "Hn" before the boy sat down and pulled out a scroll to read. Based on what he'd heard from the hokage Jiraiya felt that Naru was being intentionally oblivious to his increasingly unsubtle hints as to why he kept coming with her.

Jiraiya sighed and refocused on the lesson. He'd intended to use the time before the tournament to teach Naru summoning but she had told him that she didn't know if she wanted to sign the toad contract. He'd tried getting her to sign anyway, the thought of Minato's daughter not being a toad summoner was just ridiculous, but she had actually started to leave so he relented. Instead they were spending the time studying seals. He'd been pleasantly surprised at how advanced she was, especially without any kind of proper guidance or instruction. He felt proud and a little wistful as he listened to Naru explaining her theories on seal equations and couldn't help but wonder what she'd be like if things had turned out differently. Minato would have loved to teach her sealing.

Well, he thought, that was his cue to wrap up the lesson. There was only so much sentimentality he could bear in a day. Besides, teaching seals was more time consuming than supervising summoning which meant he wasn't able to do his research at the same time.

"All right brats," he said clapping his hands, enjoying the glares from the genin. "I have research to do so I'm calling it quits for the day."

Naru grimaced at the mention of his research, but obligingly rolled up her scrolls. She was grateful for Jiraiya's tips and insights, but it also left her frustrated. She didn't want little pointers here and there, she wanted an actual lesson. She wanted him to explain things to her rather than listen to her ideas and then offer feedback. It really made her appreciate Kakashi's hands on approach to training. Jiraiya's laid-back attitude was driving her crazy. If he'd really been her father's teacher than either her father had done a lot of independent study or he'd had some way of capturing the man's attention for long periods.

Sasuke had a similarly low opinion of Jiraiya. He had made virtually no effort to try and move past his original bad opinion of the man and so far, Jiraiya had done little to improve his opinion. Thankfully, they rarely spent more than an hour or two in his company which meant they didn't have to deal with him for long.

Kakashi shook his head from where he was hiding in the trees. He'd listened to Sasuke's complaints about Jiraiya and had decided to investigate. It baffled him a little to see Jiraiya's half-assed lessons because from what he remembered Minato-sensei had never complained about his lack of attention. Perhaps he had simply been used to it at that point? Or had Jiraiya simply forgotten what it was like to teach a student rather than offer tips to comrades? Whatever the case he was sorely mistaken if he thought he was bonding with Naru. The only reason she still went to their little meet ups was for the demon suppression seal she was designing for Gaara and that was almost complete. He honestly looked forward to seeing Jiraiya's face when he realized the girl wanted nothing to do with him. It burned Kakashi that Jiraiya expected to be able to just walk back into Naru's life after twelve years without any kind of problem. It had taken months for Kakashi to build up trust with his student and even then, he was still learning new and frankly disturbing things about her life. Kakashi knew good and well that Jiraiya was Naru's godfather and that meant he should have stepped up when Minato and Kushina died. Instead, not only did he leave her completely alone he never even checked up on her. How differently might the village have acted with the threat of one of the Sanin dropping by?

Kakashi shook his had again and stood up to leave. He only had one more week before the finals and he wanted to make sure his students were as prepared as possible.


	9. Finals and invasion

The morning of the finals dawned bright and sunny. Team Seven had taken the previous day off from training to allow themselves a chance to relax and make sure they were at their best for today. They'd chosen to have a sleepover the night before at the Uchiha Compound, so they didn't have to worry about meeting up to walk together. They were the only fully team from Konoha still in the exam and they wanted to arrive together as a show of strength. They were also hoping to make a showing of their solidarity and teamwork. Sakura and Sasuke both wore an orange accessory, Sasuke opting for an orange kunai holster and Sakura had chosen an orange pair of fingerless gloves, to represent Naru. Naru and Sasuke wore pink accessories for Sakura (Naru's black tank top had a pattern of sakura petals and Sasuke had added pink accents to his arm warmers.) Sakura and Naru were likely to set off a lot of rumors and speculation today with their nails. It had been a tradition for women of the Uchiha clan to wear special ninja-rated nail polish. The nails were all Uchiwa blue, but the nails of the ring fingers were sharingan red. The clan had always been very strict, only allowing Uchiha-born women to wear the colors. Women who married into the family were prohibited from doing so. When Sasuke presented them with the polish they all knew the reaction they would get but Sasuke confided in them that he missed seeing his family's colors and that he considered them to be his family, tradition-be-damned.

They'd decided on a whole new wardrobe for today. Sasuke ditched his usual blue high-collared shirt for a black one which made the pink and orange really stand out. Sakura had a red Chinese-style tank top with a red skirt with thigh high slits over black shorts. Naru was the real shock though. Gone was the come-and-kill-me-orange jumpsuit and instead she was clad in a tight black tank top that exposed her midriff and a pair of tight orange shorts that were almost indecently short. Naru had enjoyed the shocked looks from her teammates, but she explained that she was very comfortable with her body and she liked being able to use men's perversions against them. Kakashi had reluctantly agreed with her as most female ninja did tend to dress provocatively for that very reason.

When they arrived at the stadium they entered stealthily. They made their way to the waiting area and were less than impressed. Shikamaru was actually snoring from where he was leaning against the wall. Dosu wasn't even there yet.

They waited patiently in the shadows until the proctor called for them to enter the arena. Shikamaru's eyes almost bugged out when he saw Naru's outfit, but they became shrewd and calculating when he saw the nail polish. The proctor raised his eyebrows but decided not to comment.

"The first match of the finals will be Naru Uzumaki vs Neji Hyuga. All other participants please make your way to the viewing room."

Sakura and Sasuke quietly wished Naru luck before leaving. Naru glanced around slowly, taking in the field, and assessing the space. She knew exactly how she would win this fight, but it might not be as easy as she hoped.

For his part, Neji was quite unimpressed. Naru had not, in his opinion, made a very good showing in the pre-lims. She'd shown some impressive speed, but she hadn't been able to avoid his blow. And she'd just embarrassed all of Konoha with that idiotic illusion. And now she was wearing such indecent clothes, only disgracing them further.

Naru could see Neji's dismissal but it didn't bother her in the slightest. In fact, it would make her victory all the sweeter knowing how arrogant he had been.

"Begin!" called Genma.

Naru jumped forward and kicked at Neji's leg. Neji had been expecting her to jump back to try and create distance (a common opening strategy, plus what kind of idiot tried to engage a Hyuga in taijutsu?) and was thus caught off guard and barely managed to dodge. Before he could try a counter attack Naru did a backflip to get away and he foot caught him right under the chin. Neji was lifted off his feet from the force of the blow and he was sent flying back several feet.

Neji was seething. It was just disgraceful that a loser like that had managed to land a hit on him. And the worst part was it was a good hit. He could feel that some of his teeth were cracked and he'd only narrowly avoided a broken jaw. He was unprepared when Naru charged at him. He readied a strike, but with a powerful kick off from the ground Naru was vaulting over his head. She did a little spin in the air to build up some extra momentum and she brought her heel down on the top of his skull in a devastating axe-kick. Neji went crashing to the ground with a shout.

Neji was furious. Gai and Lee were on his team. He regularly trained with people who were insanely fast. How was she hitting him? He should have had no problem dodging her attacks, so why couldn't he keep up?

Naru smirked. While they'd been waiting to be called to the arena Naru had a clone slip seals on to most of the genin. It was rather simple, it slowed reaction times, suppressed reflexes, and dulled senses. It was very subtle, so even if Neji knew something was off he likely wouldn't be able to identify what.

Neji pushed himself up from the ground. He gritted his teeth, ignoring the pain from his jaw and lashed out with his gentle fist. He only grew more and more agitated as she effortlessly dodged his attacks, bending and twisting in ways he hadn't thought were possible.

Naru was actually a little impressed. Neji was affected by her seal and he was clearly beside himself with anger, but his form was still perfect. She had to give him credit, he was quite skilled. It was just a shame his attitude was so poor; his talent was wasted at the genin level. He had what it took to rise quickly through the ranks, but it didn't matter if his attitude stayed the way it was. It was never good when unstable people were allowed to gain more and more power.

Naru carefully activated the second part of the seal. There was a small chakra drain portion that would slowly such away Neji's chakra. Combined with the rest of the effects it was sure to disorient Neji enough to leave him unable to defend himself the way he usually could.

Sure enough, as the fight dragged on Neji could feel himself weakening. Naru had managed to dodge all of his attacks easily and she'd even landed a few more hits. She'd danced around him, deliberately not attacking in order to wear him down.

Neji half-heartedly struck at her arm, expecting her to move, but to his surprise she didn't. Instead she spun on her heel and delivered a roundhouse kick to his head, knocking him out.

There was a beat of silence as the audience processed that this no-name rookie had defeated a Hyuga. The silence did not last long at all as thunderous applause and cheering broke out. Naru was hamming it up, blowing kisses to the crowd, taking long sweeping bows, etc.

Naru made her way up to the viewing room passing Sakura. Naru only gave her a short nod. She was very nervous about Sakura's match. Naru was confident in her demon suppression seal. The design was flawless, and they'd tested it out on her, so they knew it worked. That didn't stop her worry that Gaara might cause Sakura serious injury. Gaara's instability worried Naru and she had no desire to see her friend crushed and broken like Lee.

Naru arrived in the viewing room and quickly joined Sasuke. She knew he was every bit as worried as she was. They knew better than anyone here how strong Sakura had become. However, they also knew how dangerous jinchuriki could be.

Sakura swallowed hard. She'd worked hard to hide her nerves from her teammates, but she was worried about this fight. Sakura closed her eyes and took a deep breath. It did her no good to psych herself out before the fight even started. She had a solid plan and she needed to trust it.

"Second match begin!" called Genma.

Sakura carefully ran at Gaara. She'd observed during Gaara's fight with Lee that he tended to remain stationary and let the sand come to his defense. To her delight, that was exactly what he did. Sakura twisted her arm so that the back of her fist (where the suppression seal was) collided with the sand and she leaped back to observe. As she hoped the same retracted back into the gourd on his back. She made a hand seal and activated the demon suppression seal.

The effect was instantaneous. Gaara was visibly startled and he actually started to panic.

"What have you done to me?" He screamed hysterically. The crowd was just confused. Sakura had clearly used some kind of jutsu, but nobody could see anything. Perhaps a genjutsu?

Sakura was unnerved by Gaara's reaction. They had tested the seal on Naru and while it had felt strange to be cut off from Kyubi she had not really been too effected. "I suppressed your demon," she said carefully.

Temari and Kankuro sucked in a sharp breath. Gaara was a key part of the invasion. How was it possible that some genin could just suppress Shukaku? No one in Sand was capable of anything close and several had tried.

Orochimaru raged silently. The Ichibi was absolutely vital to the invasion. That little brat had just ruined everything. It was bad enough that he hadn't managed to mark Sasuke but now his invasion was ruined as well. Orochimaru was curious though. Sealing had always been more Jiraiya's forte, but he had done a fair bit of research when designing the curse seal. Seals that affected demons were notoriously complicated. And without someone to test on there was never a way to really test if a seal would work. For the girl to have a working demon suppression seal someone in Konoha must be a budding seal master. Perhaps Kakashi had built on his sensei's teachings? It would make sense that he would create such a seal for his student.

"Give Mother back to me!" Gaara shrieked, charging forward. He made to grab Sakura by her shirt, but Sakura jumped away.

Sakura was confused. Did Gaara think the Ichibi was his mother? Could he not visit Ichibi the way Naru could visit Kyubi? If so, he surely could see that the Ichibi was clearly not human. That confusion quickly turned to disbelief as she easily dodged Gaara's attempts to attack her. He was…sloppy. She thought back to his fight against Lee. He'd really just stood there and attacked with the sand. If it really just came to his defense automatically like Kankuro said did Gaara even know how to fight? He wouldn't be able to spar, and it didn't seem likely he practiced kata on his own. This was actually a little sad.

With Gaara cut off from his sand Sakura was able to just walk right up to him, put him in a chokehold until he was unconscious and then dump him on the ground. Genma, stunned, declared Sakura the winner. She idly wondered if he was stunned by how easily she beat him or the fact that he'd turned out to be so weak without his sand. She supposed it didn't really matter and made her way back upstairs.

She got back to the viewing room just in time to hear Kankuro forfeit his match. The crowd booed angrily, but Genma ignored them, calling for Shikamaru and Temari to make their way to the arena.

It looked like Shikamaru might try to forfeit as well but Naru bodily threw him over the rail before he had a chance.

The fight was almost painful to watch. They had to give Shikamaru credit, is plan was brilliant and amazingly thorough, but it took way too long. That fight lasted almost two hours. If Temari had been a little less proud or stubborn and just attacked him he'd have lost. And his forfeit at the end was just pitiful. While it may be true that he was out of chakra, which if she was showed an appalling lack of stamina, he certainly had enough to finish the fight. He would have had time to rest during Sasuke and Naru's upcoming fights and he had the advantage of knowing Shino and his fighting style. And considering his own style seemed to be standing around waiting to use apparently the only jutsu he knows, it shouldn't have been so taxing.

Sasuke was quite irritated when it was announced that Dosu's absence constituted a forfeit because it meant he would only get to fight once. And he was confident the other finalist would be one of his teammates meaning he wouldn't get the chance to test his skills against new opponents. He sparred with his teammates regularly, this was supposed to be his chance to get some variety.

Sakura and Naru grinned widely at one another. Kakashi had insisted on secrecy for their training meaning this exam was the first chance they'd had to really show off. Team Seven had a tendency to go a little overboard sometimes and it would be the first time they'd be able to go all out with people watching.

Full to the brim with excitement, both girls opted to just jump off the railing rather than walk down the stairs. They took up positions facing each other and the moment Genma called for them to begin they were off. Fights between the two of them were always interesting. Sakura was stronger than Naru was, but Naru was fast enough to avoid direct hits. And she had enough stamina to outlast Sakura in a fight. So their fights always contained an element of cat and mouse. Naru took full advantage of her flexibility to remain just out of Sakura's reach.

Sakura sped through hand seals before calling out "Earth Style: Grasping Hands."

Earthen hands reached up, almost grabbing Naru's ankle, but she managed to jump away in time.

Naru raised an eyebrow. "When did you learn that?"

Sakura smirked. "A girl has to have some secrets, ne? I wanted to be prepared for our match."

Naru smirked right back. "I did too. Wind Style: Invisible Wall."

Naru jumped off the ground and stepped on the air itself and ran towards Sakura who was gaping at her in shock. That was so cool! Sakura shook her head to clear it and leaped back. Naru was significantly higher off the ground than she was used to which made it difficult to track her.

Naru smirked. She'd been practicing this technique for a while now, but this was her first chance to show off to one of her teammates. Being higher up in the air had the advantage of putting Sakura off balance as well as limiting the area Sakura could reach. Also, she could use downward momentum to add strength to her attacks.

The match was now heavily in Naru's favor and most seemed to realize it. However strong she might be, Sakura could not land a hit on the girl. Despite that, Sakura refused to concede. The girls exchanged blows at a frenzied pace, Naru using her agility and flexibility to target vulnerable areas while Sakura targeted areas where her heavy blows could have the greatest impact. They were fairly even in terms of damage taken, but they both knew Naru could not be beaten in a battle of attrition.

As Sakura started to slow down Naru saw her chance. She darted forward and jabbed a pressure point Sakura had taught them all about which would paralyze the body for about ten seconds. She used that time to put a kunai against her neck. When the paralysis wore off Sakura conceded the fight. In an actual battle ten seconds meant she'd be dead several times over.

The crowd erupted in raucous applause. That fight had been incredible. Both opponents giving their all and showcasing their skills was exactly what they'd been hoping for. The previous matches had been somewhat lacking.

"Winner: Naru Uzumaki." Genma announced.

Naru helped Sakura up and they walked up to the viewing room. Naru was not up there for long. Shino was smart and quite a good strategist, but after Shikamaru Temari's pride was smarting. She wasted no time and used her wind jutsu to prevent the kikaichu from getting anywhere near her. Shino recognized that he would not be able to defeat the girl and accepted defeat.

Naru was quite interested in seeing how this fight against Temari turned out. She hadn't had the chance to spar against any other wind affinities so this would be a good way to test how she way doing.

Temari eyed the blonde warily. She was tired from her fight and her loss against that slacker clown had humbled her, so she was feeling a little off balance. Beating bug boy was not enough to make up for that insult. Plus the girl had just beaten her teammate who had managed to make beating Gaara look easy. And Shukaku had actually backed down from her challenge during the prelims. Just how strong was this girl anyway?

Naru saw the hesitation on Temari's face and decided to start things off. "Wind Style: Great Breakthrough." She deliberately underpowered the jutsu to the point it was little more than a strong breeze. That was okay though. It did exactly what she wanted it to. Temari had snapped out of her thoughts and was now focused on the fight.

Temari ran forward with a shout and she swung her fan to try and hit Naru who was less than impressed. Sakura's hammer was much heavier and way more intimidating. Plus Temari wasn't very quick on her feet. It took almost no effort to jump out of the way.

Naru jumped upwards, pushing chakra into her legs to make her jump even higher. When she was almost directly overhead Temari she flashed through some hand seals. "Lightning Style: Thunder Clap." Several small and rather weak bolts of electricity raced through the air, shocking Temari painfully. The bolts might not have been that strong but there were a lot of them.

Temari was actually temporarily paralyzed by the shocks which allowed Naru to land and follow up with a quick "Earth Style: Headhunter jutsu" burying Temari neck deep into the ground.

When the paralysis wore off Temari tried to free herself from the hole, but she couldn't. She'd never been very good at using jutsu without seals and her hands were too far apart. With an aggravated sigh she gave up trying. She wasn't getting out without help.

Apparently Genma had come to the same conclusion as he announced, "Winner of the semi-finals: Naru Uzumaki."

There was more cheering for another great display. The Konoha population was shocked at how Team Seven was dominating the exams. They were just rookies! But they easily dominated opponents older and more experienced than them. It was a little unnerving to the civilians to see Naru growing stronger. It didn't sit well with them to see her being able to defend herself so well.

Asuma, who was sitting with a bunch of jonin, including Kurenai, Anko and Gai, turned towards Kakashi. "What are you teaching those kids?" he asked admiringly. It was very rare for ninja to know jutsu outside their affinity. And no matter what her affinity was she'd used a jutsu of the opposite element. That was extremely difficult to do because it required you to force your chakra to work against its own nature.

Kakashi raised an eyebrow, the only one they could even see, "I've been teaching them to be ninja," he said mildly. He knew good and well what Asuma meant. He'd started out just teaching his students jutsu in their affinities, but Naru had actually been the one to request more variety. She'd stated that it made no sense whatsoever to pigeon hole their abilities like this. Was the fact that something was hard supposed to reason enough not to do it? If that was the case, they'd never train at all. And it would only get harder to learn how to alter their chakra later on after spending years only doing it one way. Plus it was just plain stupid to be stuck fighting someone in the least efficient way possible. If someone started using fire jutsu you don't respond with more fire, you used water! The logic had made Kakashi privately wonder if that was the true strength of the Sharingan. It made it much easier to learn how to manipulate chakra for all of the elements and so they were able to use more jutsu.

Kakashi ignored Gai's rant about his 'hip and cool attitude' with the ease of long practice. He was much more interested in watching Naru and Sasuke face off. His team often sparred together so it was nothing new for them to fight each other but they were really taking his words about showing off to heart. Who knew what these two might do with an audience watching?

Naru and Sasuke faced each other, smirks on their faces. They loved sparring against each other because it gave them a chance to go all out. Naru could practice her strategy and evasion trying to counter the Sharingan and Sasuke could practice against someone who knew how to counter his Sharingan. Kakashi had told them that they had a tendency to go was overboard in their spars and that most genin, even most chunin, wouldn't be able to keep up with them. He'd mused aloud on how amazing their spars would be when they were older, wiser, and probably even more competitive. They'd actually taken that as a challenge to make their spars as epic as possible now. Kakashi wanted to admonish them about conserving energy and not going overboard (the last thing they needed was more people like Gai) but it really was the best was to train. They used so much chakra, practiced so many different jutsu and learned so many different taijutsu styles that it was hard to object. Having a rival to try and surpass inspired people to work harder. It was why Kakashi never insisted Gai leave him be. Training was always more effective when you had a goal.

Genma barely finished saying "Begin" and they were already off. Sasuke ran in and started jabbing at pressure points. His Sharingan helped to counter Naru's speed, making it harder for her to dodge. Naru scowled. This was a favored tactic of Sasuke's, and she had to admit it was effective. But she would not let him dictate the circumstances of their fight this time. Naru brushed her hand against a plain cold band on her finger and unsealed her naginata. She steadied the staff end on the ground and used it to vault over Sasuke's head, gaining her some distance to maneuver.

Sasuke grinned and unsealed his katana. It was always interesting sparring with their weapons. The naginata was so different from what he was used to, but he was learning fast.

As intrigued as Orochimaru was to final be getting to see Sasuke in action he knew he was out of time to signal the invasion to begin. Gaara being unconscious and his biju suppressed certainly put a damper on his plans but the show must go on. He needed something big to terrorize the village and if he couldn't get Shukaku then he'd just have to settle for Manda.

Naru and Sasuke quickly positioned themselves back to back as they assessed the situation. The huge puff of smoke was an enormous snake which was already leaving the immediate area and it looked like some kind of genjutsu was affecting members of the audience. To their shock and anger it looked like Sand and Sound were invading. Sand was supposed to be their ally! They wordlessly agreed to stay together. They were quite the formidable team and it was simply too dangerous to split up. They'd try to work their way towards Sakura, but for now Kakashi was responsible for her safety. And Kakashi took that responsibility very seriously.

Together they charged a group of enemy ninja. They stayed back to back to allow themselves maximum range of motion and to ensure there was no friendly fire. They both knew that they couldn't afford to mess around, they needed to come at this full on from the very start. Sasuke channeled lightning chakra to his katana. He swung at their opponents, calling out "Lightning Style: Electrostatic Burst." While he was doing that Naru channeled Kyubi's chakra into her naginata until it was glowing a light red and then swung at her enemy. "Fang of the Vixen!" she shouted as a wave of red chakra engulfed the enemy.

The effects of the two jutsu were devastating. Sasuke's jutsu had effectively paralyzed the group which left them unable to dodge Naru's attack. The corrosive chakra did incredible damage. It literally ripped through the enemy ninja, tearing many of them in half. The few who avoided being immediately killed still ended up losing limbs. Many of the little skirmishes paused to witness the devastation, shocked at the level of damage wrought by a couple of genin. Kakashi just shook his head in helpless amusement. Probably the scariest part of that whole display was that it required almost no chakra. All three of them had stored enormous amounts of chakra in their weapons which they were able to use at a later time. Sasuke had enough lightning chakra stored to last through the entire invasion. And Naru was not likely to run out of chakra as it was, but if she somehow did, she'd be able to keep going for hours on how much she had in her naginata. He was proud to see them staying together and they were being careful not to waste chakra and conserve their energy for a prolonged battle. Plus their combination was not only highly effective, it seemed to be scaring the enemy enough that a few of them looked like they were running away. It didn't surprise him that the majority of those fleeing ninja seemed to be from Sand. If they had been planning to invade this entire time, Gaara had likely been a huge part of the plan and they'd shown they could handle that threat easily.

Naru and Sasuke's swatch of destruction cleared the way for them to reach Sakura and Kakashi. The genin formed a triangle which allowed Kakashi to move away from his students though he loathed doing so. He had faith in their abilities and that they would protect one another. He still didn't like having to leave them alone in such a dangerous situation.

Although there was a certain degree of anxiety when Kakashi left, Team Seven was also proud. Genin were not to leave their sensei's side during a battle like this. By leaving them Kakashi was treating them like chunin.

They refocused their attention on the invasion. They moved in perfect harmony, never getting in each other's way. Anytime they came across a decent sized grouping of Sand or Sounds either Sakura or Sasuke would paralyze them with a quick lightning or earth jutsu and Naru would destroy them with her Fang of the Vixen. They were doing their best to push aside the reality of killing so many people, but they knew that they had personally killed at least fifty people so far and it didn't look like they would be stopping anytime soon.

Just as they were about to confront another group, they were waylaid by Kakashi.

Wasting no time on pleasantries Kakashi ordered, "Come with me. Now."

The group wasted no time and Kakashi led them to the roof of the Chunin Exam stadium. He led them right to the purple barrier and turned to Naru. "This barrier was made from seals. You can make out parts of the seals in the four corners of the barrier. You are the only one in the village right now who might be able to bring this barrier down. Time is of the essence but do not rush." They could not afford any mistakes.

Naru nodded seriously, summoning three shadow clones to observe the other corners while she broke down what she could from what little she could see. It was a tense few minutes as they waited, watching Naru jot down notes. They tried to ignore her mumbling under her breath, they all knew it was part of her process, but it was nerve racking hearing her mention disintegration and chakra drain and the fact that the barrier was impenetrable. With a tense breath Naru dismissed her clones and after making sure they'd come to the same conclusion based on the other seals she stood up. She looked at Kakashi and smiled. "The barrier itself it almost impenetrable. Anything that comes into contact with the barrier will be destroyed. However, the barrier is very precise. The seals are exactly equidistant from one another. If even one of them is moved even slightly out of position the whole thing will fail."

Naru's smile grew just a little feral as she unsealed a scroll from her belt. Her teammates started smiling as well. They all recognized which scroll Naru was holding. That was the Boom Stick. It was where Naru kept all of her explosives. Some were the standard exploding tags, but the majority were her custom tags which caused significantly more damage. Explosives were just part and parcel for knowing an Uzumaki. Eventually you learned to appreciate them and get the same rush as a full-blood Uzumaki.

Naru selected one of the tags that focused more on concussive force than fire and smoke and had everyone back up about thirty feet. Once she determined everyone was a safe distance, she detonated the tag with a single hand sign. It took a lot of effort to suppress the mad cackles seeing the roof implode elicited, but she managed. When the corner of the rood collapsed it dislodged the seal and the barrier disappeared. Kakashi tersely ordered them to assist in evacuating civilians. They were not to go anywhere near the roof on pain of D-ranks for the rest of their lives. They nodded their understanding and left to find any remaining civilians that might be in danger while Kakashi and several ANBU raced to aid their hokage.


	10. Everybody really hates Jiraiya

Naru woke slowly and with a groan rolled over and tried going back to sleep, she was absolutely exhausted. Despite their best efforts to conserve chakra during the invasion she, Sakura and Sasuke had all worked themselves to the point of near collapse. They'd been ordered to go home and rest almost immediately after they successfully repelled the invasion. They'd been much too tired to argue. They'd been too worked up to even think of separating and they'd all crashed in Kakashi's living room. They'd intended to go to the Uchiha Compound but Kakashi had been very insistent on them being in the safety of his apartment. His team had been in immeasurable danger and it would be a while before he would be able to relax. While he couldn't be there himself, he'd fortified his apartment well enough that he knew they'd be safe while they recuperated.

Naru snuggled into, she sniffed the air, Sakura apparently, and started to drift off when the tell-tale crack of electricity had all three genin bolting up, drawing kunai to defend themselves. Something or someone had just activated one of the traps. They heard muffled cursing and were both relieved and irritated to recognize Jiraiya's voice.

"Oi, brats, let me in!" Jiraiya grumbled.

Before they had a chance to do anything Kakashi appeared in a swirl of leaves, alert and ready for danger. He'd set a monitoring seal to let him know when they woke up and when they'd all woken up at the same time one of his traps went off, he'd feared the worst. He was relieved to see them alert. When he'd stopped by to check on them several hours ago, they'd been dead to the world. He focused his hearing and realized Jiraiya had been the one to set off his trap. For a moment he felt nothing but relief. He'd feared some random ninja might have slipped through the cracks and it would have been just typical for his team to be right in the middle of it. That relief was short lived however and was quickly replaced with outright fury. Jiraiya was nowhere to be found yesterday during the invasion which meant Kakashi had had to bring Naru to where Orochi-freaking-maru was trying to kill the hokage and place her in danger because they needed someone to analyze the barrier. Now that the invasion was over, no thanks at all to Jiraiya, the first thing he does is frighten his exhausted students who had more than earned their rest?

Kakashi eye-smiled at his team to reassure them. "Go back to sleep, I'll take care of this."

It said a lot about their trust in him that Naru and Sasuke, his most suspicious students, laid back down and trusted him to handle the situation.

Kakashi stormed into the hallway, forcing Jiraiya to step back quickly, lest he be run over.

"What do you think you're doing?" Kakashi asked furiously after making sure the door was once again sealed shut.

Jiraiya was surprised and a little irritated by Kakashi's hostility. He wasn't in the best mood to begin with. He'd been following a lead on Orochimaru only to find out that Orochimaru was in the Leaf Village and had led an invasion. It was a major blow to his pride as a spymaster to know he'd missed an entire freaking invasion, but he was also angry that Orochimaru had fooled him so thoroughly that he wasn't even in the village when it happened. All he wanted to do was grab Naru and go after Tsunade. He'd gotten the impression that Kakashi didn't like him, but it was unusual for him to be this obvious about it.

"Look Kakashi," he said in a friendly tone, not seeing the way Kakashi's lips curled back in a snarl. "Sensei realized that its time for him to retire and I've been asked to drag Tsunade back to the village to be the next hokage."

Kakashi barely managed to hold back his snort of derision. That was such a bad plan he didn't even know where to start. But that still didn't explain what he was doing at Kakashi's apartment. He said as much and Jiraiya's response almost short-circuited his brain.

"Oh, I'm going to take Naru with me," Jiraiya said breezily. His hearing wasn't as sensitive as Kakashi's, so he didn't hear the gasps of the genin who were now moving to crowd the door to listen in. "I've decided to take Naru on as my apprentice and this is as good a time as any to start. When we're in the village she can still train with your team but that probably won't happen very often."

Kakashi's mind was eerily blank. In that moment he felt none of the anger that was simmering and all he said was "Excuse me?" His students recognized his bland tone for the warning it was, but Jiraiya hadn't seen Kakashi in years and didn't know him particularly well.

Jiraiya huffed. "Really Kakashi, are you surprised? With that kid's talent for disappearing she's a natural for spy work. And her talent with seals is just a bonus. Really, it's for the best to start training her now before bad habits can start."

It was harder than he'd like to admit to refrain from hitting Jiraiya. Kakashi could hear his student's distress and anger and it only fueled his own. If the hokage ordered Naru to apprentice in espionage than there was nothing he could do. And without going into detail about why Naru didn't want to be alone with Jiraiya he wasn't likely to change his mind. Even knowing that Kakashi calmly stated, "I won't allow it."

Jiraiya was floored. That…wasn't what he expected. Kakashi had been extremely obedient as a child and always followed orders no matter what. When had that changed?

The shock wasn't quite enough to suppress the anger that was building quickly. Naru was his goddaughter. He'd always intended to take her one after she made chunin so he wouldn't have to waste time covering the basics. It bothered him that Naru had been so uncomfortable around him and the fact that she trusted Kakashi and that Kakashi was actively keeping them apart angered him.

"That wasn't a request," Jiraiya said in a steely tone.

If Jiraiya's tone was steel Kakashi's was silk. "Until the hokage himself orders otherwise nothing and no one is entering or exiting that apartment. Am I in any way unclear?"

Jiraiya narrowed his eyes with a scowl. However strong Kakashi might have gotten he still wasn't a match for a Sanin. He debated breaking into the apartment, he'd surely be able to get past any seals, but decided against it. Now wasn't the time to incite rebellion from the ninja by forcibly breaking into a highly respected jonin's apartment. And Kakashi was surprisingly popular so if he decided to kick up a fuss (and he most assuredly would) it would get out of hand very quickly. He really did not want to give Kakashi the satisfaction of backing down, but he didn't have much of a choice.

With a scorching glare Jiraiya turned on his heel and stormed out. Kakashi waited to make sure Jiraiya was actually gone and then he summoned his pack. He didn't trust Jiraiya not to come back the minute his back was turned, and he wanted some additional defenses. He made his way inside and was pleased to see that the kids didn't try to pretend that they hadn't been eavesdropping. That would have been an insult to his skills.

He walked over to the living room and sat on the couch, prompting his students to return to the pile of futons and blankets that they'd abandoned in their haste to get to the door. They made their way over and in a rare show of trust Naru rolled herself up in a blanket, showing her faith that Kakashi would be able to handle the situation and she could just go back to sleep. It humbled him to realize that she'd come to trust him that much.

"I have my dogs running patrols so no one should be getting close enough to set off any more traps. You should be able to finish sleeping in peace. Now that I've challenged orders the hokage is going to speak to me before he reaches out to any of you. It's still busy enough that it will be a couple of hours before he'll have a chance to talk to me. I want you to take this time to rest. You've all earned a break."

Naru really wanted to press further, it unnerved her to hear that Jiraiya had gotten permission from the hokage to basically kidnap her, but Kakashi had proven himself to her. If he said he would handle it then he would. Plus, she was still so tired. She nodded her assent and laid down, grabbing one of Sasuke's arms to cuddle. Sasuke looked like he wanted to protest the manhandling, but his eyes were already sliding shut. It was only a matter of moments before the genin were once again sleeping peacefully.

Kakashi spent a few extra minutes watching over his students. He wanted to make sure they were settled before he headed out. He would need to speak to the other jonin sensei. It was important to recruit allies if he was going to challenge the hokage. None of the sensei would support someone just swooping in and taking one of their students, not even someone as prestigious as Jiraiya. And if he could get to Kurenai she'd protest a pervert like Jiraiya being alone with a young girl on the cusp of puberty. That meant they wouldn't even need to mention Naru's past at all.

With one last look Kakashi disappeared in a swirl of leaves. He had work to do.


	11. Jinchuriki bonding

Naru's eye would not stop twitching. They'd been "looking for Tsunade" for several weeks now and they were no closer to actually finding the woman. Naru suspected that Jiraiya was jerking them around as a kind of petty revenge.

As Kakashi predicted, it had taken almost two days for the hokage to track him down for answers. By that point he'd managed to rile Kurenai into a frenzy and she'd rallied an impressive number of female ninja who protested Jiraiya being anywhere near a teenage girl, even the Kyubi child. Kakashi hadn't even had to say anything to the Sandaime. Gai and Kurenai had been making so much noise about everything that everyone knew what Kakashi was up to. While the hokage was pleased to see that Naru had grown close to her team and her sensei, he was not in the business of being questioned by his subordinates.

Realizing the futility of talking to Kakashi in private, Naru was certain to eavesdrop, he'd bluntly asked, "What do you want Kakashi? Jiraiya is taking over Naru's training, that is non-negotiable. You are not qualified to teach her seals or espionage. You know good and well that once students reach chunin they break off into their specialties. Sakura is going to the hospital to hone her skills. Sasuke will remain in your care as you teach him about his sharingan and the jutsu you've learned."

Team Seven erupted in protest. Their team was showing promise as the powerhouses of their generation and there were special considerations in those circumstances. After all, the Sanin had been a team long after they made jonin even though their specialties were so different. And what about the Ino-Shika-Cho trio? They certainly still went out together even though they worked in different departments.

"I'll run."

The whisper was so quiet no one was sure they'd heard anything. They all slowly turned to face Naru who was lightly trembling. She glanced up and her eyes were shadowed as she stared the hokage down.

"If you try and force me to go with Jiraiya I will run and run, and you will never find me."

The air was absolutely still. It had always been an unspoken fear that someday Naru would simply vanish and they would never see her again. But for Naru to actually threaten to do it? That was tantamount to betraying the village and becoming a missing-nin. What's more, Naru had never admitted openly to disappearing. She'd always denied doing anything and insisted people simply did not see her. For her to come out and openly threaten the hokage was a good indication of how serious she was.

The Sandaime was disturbed. If that had been virtually any other ninja, he'd have them written up for insubordination and possibly spend a few quality hours with T&I. However, Naru was like a grandchild to him and he was very concerned that she felt the need to even make such a threat. What in the world had Jiraiya done to make Naru so wary of him?

Despite his uneasiness he held firm. He really could not back down from this. It was bad enough that Kakashi was openly challenging him, but if he let a genin, even one he was so fond of, threaten him then his authority was over. Especially since the vast majority of the village didn't know about her penchant for vanishing so this would appear to be a spoiled child threatening to run away if she didn't get her way.

"Naru," he said firmly, watching the way Sakura and Sasuke seemed to wilt. They knew this was not going to end the way the hokage seemed to think. "I have given you a great deal of freedom over the years, but it seems that you've misunderstood something. My orders are not up for discussion. If I tell someone to do something, I expect it to be done. If you have a problem with my orders, that is something that should be brought up in private, not in the middle of the street. Now, have I made myself clear?" he asked with a stern look, ignoring the way the rest of Team Seven sighed in disappointment.

Naru nodded with an air or regret. "You made yourself very clear." The hokage nodded, satisfied to see Naru backing down. "But so did I."

With that declaration Naru vanished before their eyes. There were gasps of shock and outrage while the Sandaime cursed. Thus far Naru had always been careful when she disappeared. She'd always turned a corner, or ducked into a store, provided some reasonable, if completely untrue, explanation for losing sight of her. This was blatant and it called everyone's attention to her special talent. There was bound to be those who were upset about how easily she could vanish.

Naru slowed down, going from a full out sprint to a light jog. Once she'd pulled her little disappearing act, she'd known it was important to get moving right away. She would use this unexpected break to do some errands. She'd really wanted to speak to Gaara, but so much had been going on she hadn't had a chance. The jinchuriki and his siblings were sitting in T&I where they'd been taken once Sand's treachery had been discovered.

Naru walked into the T&I building quite calm. It wasn't the first time she'd broken in and the only really tricky part was waiting for someone to open the doors she needed to get through. Thankfully Naru had long since learned when meals were delivered which made it even easier. In practically no time at all she was standing outside of Gaara's cell. Naru was a little surprised to see the brand-new camera focused on the cell. Normally she would have taken that as her cue to leave, but she was trying to prove a point right now, so she made herself visible. Gaara barely even reacted. He stared at her sullenly. Konoha recognized that they could not keep the children of the Kazekage prisoner indefinitely, they especially could not keep their jinchuriki. With that in mind they'd been trying to influence him towards sanity as much as possible. There'd been a lot of talk of village loyalty, forgiveness and more. He was sick of it.

"Have you come to tell me about how wonderful life can be if only I let go of my hatred?" he asked sardonically. He recognized her from the pre-lims and knew she was like him. If she started saying the same thing then that was it. He was truly and completely alone.

Naru glanced up at the camera, wondering if it recorded audio, before deciding to answer truthfully.

"I suppose in a way I am, but likely not in the way you are expecting."

Despite himself Gaara actually felt disappointed. He'd seen pain and loneliness in Naru's eyes, and he'd hoped he'd finally found someone who could understand.

"The thing is, people are going to tell you that you need to "forgive and forget." They're going to tell you about how much better you will feel once you forgive people for their mistakes. Bullshit." Gaara actually looked startled and looked at Naru, seeing the steeliness in her eyes. "Nothing any of them did was a "mistake." They meant every word, every blow, every look. The things they did to me are unforgiveable and I do not forgive them. There is simply no forgiveness for some things. To put it quite plainly most of the people in this village are dead to me. I do not care if they are in danger, I will not lift one finger to help them."

Seeing Gaara's look of confusion she clarified, "I fought off the invasion to protect the people I love who are precious to me. If anyone else benefitted from my actions, well so be it. If I could know that all of the people I love would be safe I would have sat back and done nothing. I owe those people a world of pain and misery and hatred. I do not owe them one shred of compassion or mercy. In fact, I will show them the same amount of mercy they showed me; none at all."

Naru laughed humorlessly at the surprise on Gaara's face and ignored the alarm in Temari and Kankuro's. This was just for them, the people their villages had sacrificed for safety from the tailed beasts.

"Why?" Gaara asked, sounding lost. "Why do you not punish them for what they've done? They hurt us and hated us, and I can't forgive them for it." For the first time in years Gaara could feel himself starting to cry.

Naru knelt down and caressed Gaara's cheek. He gasped as he felt a soft and caring touch for the first time in his life. Naru gently brushed away the tears. "Then don't. Why should you? Why do you have to be the bigger person and accept an apology you never received? Why should you forgive someone who is not sorry? I've been lucky enough to find people to love that care for me. I am loyal to them. I do not love Konoha. I doubt I ever will. It just so happens that Konoha is home to the people I love. That's enough for me to want to protect it." Naru manipulated the wind in her throat for the next part. This was for Gaara alone and no one else should hear it.

"Kyubi told me what Shukaku is doing to you. It's why I haven't removed the suppressant seal. If you want, I can try to modify your seal so that you can sleep without Shukaku breaking out. And if you want, I can help you run away. I will not force you back to the Sand if you do not want to go. I can help you hide for a while and then you'd be free."

Gaara stared at her in open shock. He'd even thought about leaving Sand. Now that the offer had been made, he could almost see it. Being able to just…exist without people glaring at him or shouting or trying to kill him. He wanted that so much. Without Mother…Shukaku constantly screaming for blood he found that he just wasn't that angry anymore. He was mostly sad, hurt and afraid. He didn't want to go back to that.

Naru could see the answer in his eyes, but she couldn't exactly kidnap him from his cell.

"Think about it, okay?" she said, waiting until she received a nod before disappearing again.

She'd stayed disappeared for an entire week. In reality she'd spent the entire week in the Uchiha Compound. The seals had been strong enough to completely conceal her presence. Sasuke and Sakura pretended not to know where she was and Kakashi had his dogs providing completely false information about her trail heading towards Sand or Grass.

The Sandaime admitted defeat after five days, but Naru waited a few extra days just to really drive home the point. He'd held firm to Naru agreeing to accompany Jiraiya on his journey. Naru had outright refused to be alone with the man. They eventually reached a compromise and Team Seven was sent to accompany Jiraiya as he searched for his wayward teammate. None of her teammates were exactly happy to be in Jiraiya's company but they were relieved that she wouldn't be alone with him. They'd be there to monitor everything. Jiraiya was frustrated and a little hurt that Naru would go so far to avoid him.

The result was Jiraiya being particularly obnoxious and irritating and Team Seven having less and less patience for his antics. Naru had actually begun working on a seal to make Jiraiya mute. She had the support of her entire team behind her for that one. Sasuke had quietly begun working on a seal that would render Jiraiya impotent. Kakashi had, admittedly half-heartedly, lectured them on being more fair towards Jiraiya's…quirks, but Sasuke was sick and tired of seeing Sakura and Naru shrink into themselves whenever the man started "researching." And it made his blood boil when Naru borrowed one of Sasuke's shirts to sleep in. Naru was so bold and comfortable in her own skin and for Jiraiya to make her so uncomfortable that she needed to wear extra clothes so that she could hide from him was infuriating. Kakashi knew what the boy was doing, and he couldn't bring himself to tell him to stop. He was every bit as angry with Jiraiya and it was only his ruthless professionalism that was keeping him from actually castrating the man himself.

In the last town they'd stopped at there'd been a festival going on and Kakashi'd almost skewered Jiraiya when he'd tried to take Naru's wallet from her in the name of "saving her from temptation." As if Naru didn't know how to manage her own money by now. Jiraiya had sulked for hours about not being able to mooch off of any of his travel companions, either ignoring or oblivious to their disgust with his behavior.

Jiraiya, to his credit, had started teaching Naru a new jutsu, but he'd absolutely forbidden her from practicing in front of Sasuke. It seemed he had a problem with the Sharingan. Naru refused to avoid Sasuke just to learn a new jutsu, plus Sasuke was very respectful with his sharingan, at least as far as his teammates were concerned, so she was making little progress. She was perfectly content to continue to train under Kakashi and ignore Jiraiya's attempts to ingratiate himself to her. This only seemed to spur Jiraiya to try even harder to get her to like him.

It astounded her a little how someone so impressive and powerful as a sanin, as well as savvy enough to be a spy master, was so oblivious to the fact that he was making her so uncomfortable. She supposed it could be willful, but she could tell that Jiraiya seemed genuinely hurt and distressed by her disdain. It almost felt like he was expecting her to act a certain way and it surprised him when she didn't. She had a sinking suspicion that the hokage had lied to him the same way he'd lied to Kakashi, but Jiraiya hadn't been around to see her and so he'd pretty much imagined her as a copy of her parents. She felt sorry for him, but the fact remained that that was not who she was. And she wasn't going to pretend to be someone she wasn't.

Thankfully it seemed like they might a=be almost done. They had a real, tangible lead for once, and thanks to the speed training Team Seven had they were making really good time. If this turned out to be yet another dead end, well, she was just about finished with the seal to mute Jiraiya.


	12. Naru and Saukra vs Tsunade

Naru leaned back quietly, listening to Tsunade's bitter, angry rant. She could tell that Jiraiya was getting angry at the blatant disrespect but Team Seven was numb. They had no respect left for the village or the hokage after learning what Naru had gone through. Kakashi wanted to defend his sensei but he couldn't quite bring himself to. He'd been thoroughly disillusioned as to his village that he could appreciate the things Tsunade was saying. There had been a few points on this little journey where he'd really considered sneaking off with his team in the middle of the night and just leaving it all behind. He'd ultimately decided against it because there were still people, he trusted that he wasn't willing to give up on.

"Playing at hokage," spat Tsunade, "it's a fool's game!"

"Is it really such a foolish thing? Dying for something you believe in?"

Naru's question was quiet, but it stopped Tsunade in her tracks and drew all eyes to her. There was a hard glint in her eye as she stared the older woman down.

"Is it somehow better or wiser to live as a coward, bitter and angry, believing in nothing, and turning your back on everyone and everything that once mattered to you? Rather than die for something you believe in, regardless of whether or not that ideal was foolish or not? I know which of those two I would respect t more."

Kakashi beamed at his youngest student while subtle shifting position to jump in front of her if Tsunade made a move to retaliate.

Tsunade flushed, angry at being called out like that. She stood up, knocking back her chair and slamming her hands on the table so hard the entire thing threatened to give out and shouted, "You wanna fight, brat?"

Sasuke and Sakura had been sitting back and observing, but that proved to be too much for Sakura. "What is the matter with you?" Sakura demanded. "Being a medic-nin means having to accept hard and painful truths. Have you really fallen so far that you'll just yell and lash out if someone says something you don't want to hear? Have some professional pride."

Team Seven knew how seriously Sakura took her job and so they were completely unsurprised by the outburst. Jiraiya and Shizune were scandalized that a little girl was shouting at Tsunade.

Tsunade was actually a little embarrassed by the reprimand. While she had no doubt Shizune and Jiraiya and the Sandaime were frustrated with her behavior they understood her grief and were unwilling to really push her. Being a medic-nin had always been such a huge part of who she was. Her fear of blood was such a huge embarrassment for her and caused here so much shame but being told there was yet another way she was failing was surprisingly hard. And the worst part was that the pinkette wasn't wrong. Sometimes there really is nothing you can do to save someone, and you had to accept that, or you would burn out fast.

Past the deep well of grief, Tsunade felt a spark of pride, she was genuinely glad to see such passion in the new generation. It gave her hope that the future might not be as bleak as the past. But then, hadn't she once been the same way? And then war came ad took everything from her.

"You have no idea what you're talking about little girl," she sneered. "You're just a child playing at being a ninja."

Sasuke seriously considered replacing himself with that pig that was running around. He knew firsthand how hot Sakura's temper burned and he was currently too close for comfort. Sure enough, Sakura stood up, knocking her own chair and slamming her hands onto the table. With the damage already done by Tsunade the poor table collapsed under its second assault.

"Who the hell are you calling little girl?" Sakura demanded. "I am a ninja and I demand to be treated like one!"

Jiraiya couldn't help the feelings of déjà vu that washed over him. He could vividly picture his own genin days when Tsunade had yelled almost the exact same thing at a particularly sexist client. 'Oh god, there's two of them,' he thought amused, a grin threatening to come across his face. He could see that Tsunade was responding to this girl and he hoped she'd be able to get through to his stubborn teammate.

Before Tsunade had a chance to respond Naru stepped in front of Sakura. She looked her irate teammate in the eye and gently said, "We know what a strong and capable ninja you are. And you proved it to the whole village during the exams. You have nothing to prove, okay?"

Sakura nodded, the anger receding slowly. She was embarrassed to have broken the table and was ashamed to see how frightened the other patrons were.

When she saw that Sakura was calm Naru whirled around to face Tsunade, eyes blazing. "Are you really so selfish that you believe you are the only one who has suffered loss and pain? Are you really that arrogant that you just dismiss anyone else's pain as irrelevant because they can't possible be suffering as much as you? Here's a wake-up call lady, everyone has lost something that they can never get back."

Weeks of Jiraiya's antics had worn Naru's patience down to almost nothing. She'd been a hair from snapping for so long and she was not pulling any punches.

Tsunade saw red. What did this little girl know about loss? She was too young to have lost the love of her life and her parents died before she even knew them. There was no way she could understand what Tsunade had lost.

"You don't know what you're talking about," Tsunade seethed. "What could you possibly know about loss? Losing a lover or family member is like losing a part of yourself. You have no idea what that us like so don't you dare try and sit there and lecture me."

"Do you know how old I was the first time I was raped?" Naru asked quietly. If Tsunade wanted to compare pain than Naru would indulge her.

There was absolute stillness at the table. Jiraiya, Tsunade and Shizune were shocked by the blunt question and the implications therein and Team Seven was concerned that Naru was making herself so vulnerable around people that they didn't trust. They didn't want her to get hurt and she would if she wasn't careful.

"No?" Naru asked, voice light as if she'd only asked for Tsunade to pass her a napkin. "I was six." She ignored the horror on their faces and went on. "I didn't know what it was for a long time. I didn't have the words to describe it. It hurt in ways the regular beatings never did. I could tell that something about it was different. _I_ felt different after. It was like I'd lost something, but I didn't know what it was. I honestly wanted to die."

Naru ignored the way her team surged forward to touch her before they restrained themselves. She'd never shared that detail before, and they were horrified to hear it. They wanted to comfort her but Naru wasn't always good about being touched and they didn't think now was the best time to try.

"After it was over, do you know what I did? I crawled over to the dumpster, it hurt too much to stand, and I crawled under that dumpster. I stayed there for three days. I didn't dare come out because I wouldn't be able to run so I just laid there, staring at the dried blood, feeling the filth on my body and wanting it all to end. When I was strong enough to move, I went to a stream I knew and washed off what I could. I scrubbed and scrubbed but I couldn't seem to get clean, no matter how hard I tried. And to tell the truth? I haven't felt clean since. But I put those clothes back on and I went on with my life, Because I didn't have a home to hide in where I could feel safe. I didn't have a family waiting up for me to make sure I was safe. No one knew what had happened and no one would have cared if I'd told them. This was not unusual for me. Nobody ever cared if I was hurt. I had no home; I had no family. I lost those things before I even had the chance to have them. So, there are no memories of loving embraces or caring words for me to turn to when I need them. I never heard my parents tell me they loved me. I never cried on my parent's shoulder while they rubbed my back or ran their fingers through my hair to calm me down. So please, tell me more about how I don't know anything about loss."

Everyone was staring at Naru in blatant shock. Sakura and, surprisingly enough, Jiraiya had tears in their eyes.

"I understand all too well how it feels to lose a part of yourself. I felt a part of myself die in that alley. I felt another piece die the first time a group of villagers started cheering when they thought they'd killed me. I died a little bit when I realized that my father chose the village over me. And I died a little bit more when I realized I had a godfather and a godmother and neither one of them cared enough to be there for me growing up. I have lost so many pieces of myself over the years that I am surprised sometimes to see that I am still in one piece. I think of that girl I used to be, and I honestly do not recognize her. There are times when I feel the wounds on my heart and soul bleed so heavily, I'm always surprised when I look down and realize my clothes are not drenched in blood and tears. Do not ever try and tell me that I don't understand pain."

Naru turned on her heel and walked out of the bar. Sasuke and Sakura scrambled after her, not wanting to leave her alone after what they'd just heard. Jiraiya made to follow, desperate to make sure his goddaughter, who he loved dearly, no matter what she may think, was okay, but Kakashi told him to let her be. Jiraiya didn't like it, but he could acknowledge that he was probably the last person she wanted to see right now.

Satisfied to see that Jiraiya was backing down, Kakashi turned on Tsunade who was pale from shock.

"My team is leaving tomorrow and returning to the village. If you are not with us, I will petition the hokage to declare you a missing-nin. No one is denying that you've lost a great deal, but it is long past time someone gave you a good kick in the ass."

Kakashi didn't wait to see if Tsunade had a response, he just left. He wanted to check on his student.

Sakura and Sasuke followed Naru silently. They weren't sure if silence was what Naru really needed right now, but they also didn't know what to say.

"I didn't know you were in that much pain," Sasuke said quietly when they settled down in a park. He was ashamed of that fact. He'd spoken to Naru about the massacre and how much he'd idolized his brother and how devastated he was by his betrayal. How had he never thought to ask her about her own pain?

Naru reached over and ran her fingers through Sasuke's hair as he leaned into her touch. "I don't like to talk about it," she said quietly. "I'm not as far past those feelings as I would like. Sometimes the only way to make it through the day is to just not think about it as much as possible. I know that's not particularly healthy, but it's what I've got. Besides, it doesn't particularly do me any good to talk about it and it hurts you to hear it so what is the benefit of bringing it up?"

Before they had a chance to respond they saw Jiraiya come staggering towards them. From the way his eyes slid right over them it seemed that Naru was hiding them. To Sasuke's irritation Jiraiya sat down on a bench fairly close. To his surprise the man just hung his head, looking surprisingly tired. They watched Kakashi sit down next to him and offered the sage an (admittedly awkward) pat on the shoulder.

Jiraiya ran a hand over his face. "I'm going to kill Sensei. I wanted to take Naru with me after Minato and Kushina died. I did. But I needed to be out of the village gathering information and there was no way the council would approve of me taking her out of the village. I almost made it back when she was three but then Cloud tried to kidnap the Hyuga brat and that treaty blew up and I had to head back out. And then when she was seven, I was on my way back when Itachi went crazy. We are weaker than we have ever been, and we need every ounce of intel I can get us. There was simply no way I could take a break after that. This is the first chance I've had to actually see her. But I always made sure to keep up with her life. Believe it or not I received monthly reports from Sensei. Clearly those reports were outright lies. I was under the impression that she was being taken care of and at least reasonably well adjusted. If I'd had any idea of the truth, I'd have taken her away in an instant, to hell with the council. Instead I've got a severely abused and neglected goddaughter who hates my guts and I really can't blame her for it."

Naru's eyes were wide. Jiraiya had checked on her? And he'd tried to visit her? What would it have meant to her to know that growing up?

Sasuke felt himself warm up a little to Jiraiya. The Leaf Village had been through a lot the last few years and the Spy Master was a position that would be absolutely crucial in such dire circumstances. And he liked that Jiraiya had been trying to look out for Naru. And the false reports would explain why he acted so strangely around Naru.

Jiraiya barked out a laugh as he grinned at Kakashi. "Those kids of yours though, I don't think I've ever seen anyone shut Tsunade down like that. I think your pink haired brat really got to her. That kid is going places, I'm telling you."

Kakashi smiled at Jiraiya, genuinely happy to brag about his students. "They all are. All three of them are shaping up to be the powerhouses of their generation. I knew the moment I started training them that I was witnessing the beginning of something truly great. I can't wait for the day when I'm famous for being their teacher. I honestly can't imagine a better legacy."

The genin smiled at each other. It was nice to hear that Kakashi had so much faith in them. They silently agreed to return to camp. Kakashi had Jiraiya handled and it had been an emotionally charged day for them all. 


	13. Back to the Village

Jiraiya slipped into the seat next to Tsunade. After his little heart-to-heart with Kakashi he'd decided to give his wayward teammate a visit. Naru and Sakura had done an excellent job of getting through the woman's shell, but now it was time for him to bring her home. Tsunade silently poured a cup for him, not daring to glance in his direction, a little afraid of what she would see.

Finally, Tsunade broke the silence. "Did you know?" There was no accusation in her tone. Her voice was actually quite mild. Jiraiya wondered if she might be in shock or if she was so angry, she was calm.

"No," he said, not bothering to hide the anger in his voice. "And I can't say I'm very pleased to hear it."

Tsunade made a noise of agreement. "I'm going back with you," she said, much to his surprise. "Once upon a time I shared a dream with Nawaki and Dan; a dream to be hokage. It's time I stepped up and fulfilled that dream. More than that though," she said, voice heavy with disapproval and disappointment, "if this is the kind of life Naru has had than I can no longer trust Sensei to remain in charge. Someone needs to take care of that child and we can't count on him to do it." Tsunade took a long gulp before she finally turned to look at Jiraiya. "It cut me to the core when she accused me of not caring about her. I hate that I'm just another person in her life who has caused her pain. She was right, I've been so wrapped up in my grief that I've forgotten to actually live. I'm going to need help cleaning house."

Jiraiya smiled humorlessly. "You'll have it. Kakashi's got the jonin on his side, you should have seen how beautifully he turned them against me." He ignored her curious look and continued. "The elders have got to go. They're too stuck in their ways to change and their ideals are dangerous. Sensei's let them get away with so much that they've exercised authority they don't have. And don't even et me started on Danzo."

Tsunade snorted in agreement. "I'm going to give Naru her birthright. Sensei had no right to keep it from her. Let the village see exactly whose daughter they've been abusing."

The two made their way through a bottle of sake as they discussed the changes that would need to be made to the village.

The journey back to the village was much smoother than the journey from it. Jiraiya was making an effort to actually talk with Naru and it was making a world of difference. Instead of demanding Sasuke leave so he could teach, he actually explained himself. "The jutsu I want to teach you was your father's. He always intended to pass it down to his children. I wanted to pass this on to you because it is your birthright. Knowing that, if you still want the Uchiha to stay that's fine. I just want you to know what exactly it will mean. I see you and your other teammate wearing the Uchiha colors, so I assume you consider them to be family?" he asked looking at Sasuke who gave a short nod, almost daring him to say something about it. Jiraiya nodded approvingly. "Kushina and Mikoto were good friends. They'd be happy to see how close you are."

Sasuke was floored. No one ever mentioned his family and he'd had no idea Jiraiya had known them. He desperately wanted to ask questions but recognized that this wasn't the best time to do so.

After that training went much more smoothly. Sasuke's sharingan offered insights on how to mold the chakra so they both breezed past the first two stages, but the third one was taking longer for them. Meanwhile Tsunade and Shizune were suggesting ways for Sakura to build her chakra reserves quickly. When Tsunade learned that Sakura was studying seals for healing she'd forced them all to make camp and gave the entirety of Team Seven an incredibly thorough and detailed lesson. People tended to forget that her grandmother was an Uzumaki and sealing talent was in her blood. She was very impressed by the seal chain Team Seven used to heal. She'd shown them some of the more complicated seals she'd used in surgeries. All three of the genin enjoyed the lesson. Sakura had loved learning about the practical applications of seals in healing and Naru appreciated advanced examples of a complex formula being used. She was even more excited that Tsunade intended to add a seal class in the academy. There would be a few seals that were mandatory—such as storage seals and exploding tags—and instructors would keep an eye out for any students who showed talent or expressed further interest. It was imperative to increase the amount of ninja who were knowledgeable in the art. Plus, if they could all produce their own supplies than they could cut down on supply costs.

Jiraiya, Kakashi and Naru were being tapped as the current "experts." Kakashi had told Tsunade that Naru's promotion was guaranteed thanks to her actions in the forest so she was being slated for a stint as teacher at the academy. If they limited her to only sealing classes, she'd still have time to train and go on missions. If they found anyone else with decent skill they would be drafted as well. Shizune and Sakura were in discussion about a seminar for academy students and hospital staff focusing specifically on seals in a medical setting. They could involve the civilians because the chakra wasn't involved until it was activated.

Naru, realizing that Tsunade intended to make several changes once she was sworn in, seized the opportunity to point out something that had bothered her for years. "The Academy is designed to slow you down," she explained. "We waste so much time that could go to much better use. We spend so much time on theory and not nearly enough time on practical. There is no sense in learning how much force you need to hit an enemy when you are fifteen feet up in a tree facing them at a forty-five-degree angle with a windspeed of five miles per hour. That is something you learn by doing. Unless you know exactly how hard a throw you need for exactly fifteen pounds of force than knowing that that is what you need is completely useless. And I agree that history is important, but that is something that can be covered during conditioning exercises or kata. We waste so much time just sitting there."

Tsunade and Jiraiya were shocked but Kakashi nodded. The Sandaime as he aged had grown soft and he wanted children to have the time to be children before they became ninja. It was a lovely idea but not very realistic given the villages needs. Many of the jonin sensei complained about the quality of the genin they received. The hokage however refused to budge on the issue.

The trek back to Konoha was very leisurely. They'd gone as quickly as possible to find Tsunade because they were in a hurry to get away from Jiraiya, but now they were making sure to take their time.

Naru tried to include Sakura in their rasengan training but Sakura's reserves weren't deep enough for such chakra intensive training. Naru shocked all of the adults by mastering the rasengan in a little over a week. Sasuke was a little frustrated by her success, but he kept quiet knowing that it was her father's jutsu and he didn't want to ruin the moment with petty jealousy.

Unfortunately, all good thing must come to an end and they found themselves approaching the village gates. Naru wanted to break off from the group and just head home but Tsunade put her foot down. She wanted to make it blatantly and unmistakably obvious that Naru had the hokage's support and protection.

As the group walked through the streets towards the Hokage Tower it was all too easy to see which people did not like seeing her in such powerful company. Naru was actually quite taken aback to see how many people weren't upset. It would seem as though she was getting more popular.

Tsunade didn't even bother to knock as she pushed open the door to the hokage's office. It appeared as though her actions had been anticipated as Koharu, Homura and Danzo were all waiting in the office. Danzo's hand tightened on his cane when he saw Naru but gave no other indication of his displeasure.

"Tsunade," the Sandaime said, genuinely happy to see his wayward student. "It's wonderful to see you again. Welcome home."

Tsunade's face didn't twitch from the deep scowl that graced her eternally youthful face the moment she saw the group waiting for her. "Cut the crap, old man. I'm here don't expect me to be happy about it. Now, I have work to do so get out of my office."

The elders gaped at her, outraged at the blatant disrespect, while the Sandaime was left to sigh in reluctant amusement. He'd been expecting something like this, so he stood up and moved to a different seat without a fuss. The elders tried to protest but Tsunade waved their objections aside with a careless hand.

Tsunade, realizing they weren't going to leave easily decided to take the opportunity to show them how things would be from now on.

"Effective immediately Team Seven, comprising of Sakura Haruno, Sasuke Uchiha and Naru Namikaze are promoted to the rank of chunin." She ignored the shocked protests and instead focused on the newly minted chunin. Sakura and Sasuke each had a hand on Naru for support. The girl's eyes sparkled through a light sheen of tears. The bright smile though reassured Tsunade that they were happy tears.

"This girl has more than earned her legacy, but more than that we need a show of force. Konoha is weak. We need to show the world that we are still a force to be reckoned with. What better way than to announce to the world that the Uzumaki and Namikaze bloodlines have survived and that the Fourth Hokage's legacy will go on?" Tsunade fixed her eyes on Danzo, knowing he was the most dangerous of them all. "Imagine our enemies' fear knowing that the Uzumaki legacy lives on and the current heir is a seal prodigy to make her ancestors proud, the Namikaze legacy of speed and seals is thriving as well. And imagine both of those legacies combined in the current Kyubi jinchuriki. I think that might just be enough to make some think twice before coming after us, don't you?"

The elders looked reluctantly impressed by Tsunade's argument. Naru had made a good showing in the Chunin Exam and letting the truth of her heritage get out might just be enough to buy them time. Rock and Cloud still told ghost stories about the Yellow Flash and though the truth would put a target on Naru's head it might also give Konoha the breathing room it so desperately needed.

Tsunade could see that she'd made her point and so she turned to the newly minted chunin.

"You three are free to go. Take the rest of the week to relax because next week you are going to hit the ground running."

The three bowed respectfully and left. It was just barely noon, so they decided to get some lunch. They were trying to decide what to get when they saw a familiar face waiting for them.

"Hey Shikamaru," Naru said, surprised to see him there. Sakura and Sasuke shrugged, they didn't know either.

"Hey," Shikamaru drawled, feeling slightly awkward he said, "You guys wanna get lunch? I've been looking for you guys."

This surprised Naru. Shikamaru didn't "look for people." That was too much effort for the lazy boy. She raised her eyebrow at him, and he huffed out a laugh. "I know, it hardly even sounds like me, does it? But I wanted to ask about what you did in the Chunin Exam. That was sealing, wasn't it?"

"Yeah," Naru said, confused. "What about it?"

Shikamaru actually blushed a little. "Well sealing seems like it'd be just my speed. Taking your time to set it up, not having to move around a lot, being able to take it easy. Yeah, I like the sound of that."

Naru, Sasuke and Sakura's eyes twitched in unison. The way he described seals was just insulting. He did raise an intriguing point though. With their intelligence and lazy nature Nara's might just make excellent seal masters. With their strategic skills and analytical minds, they would either be incredibly good…or incredibly bad. Sakura had a brilliantly analytical mind and she really struggled with the art. Her stubborn persistence and dedicated memorization made her a deft hand at seals, but she would never be a master the way Naru was shaping up to be.

They headed towards the BBQ shop Team Ten frequented (Ichiraku just didn't have the counter space needed for an in-depth sealing lesson) and Naru tried to gauge what Shikamaru might already know about seals. The answer wasn't surprising, he knew next to nothing. She couldn't help but wonder if that was due to laziness from not bothering to do any research or from the sheer lack of study materials. Sealing was just so dangerous if done incorrectly so most places, including Konoha, kept any material restricted unless you could prove that you knew what you were doing.

The four of them sat there for hours as Naru thoroughly lectured them all. They didn't even realize how long it'd been until Shikamaru's team came looking for him. When they finally found him, they were treated to an incredibly rare sight, Shikamaru was actually having a shouting match against Naru who was every bit as passionate.

"That doesn't make any sense!" Shikamaru shouted, tearing at his hair in frustration.

Naru's eyes blazed with fire. "Not everything does! Not everything has to!"

That was just too much for the shadow user. "Of course, it does! That's the whole point! _Everything_ is supposed to make sense. If it doesn't you study it until it does."

Asuma's jaw dropped. He'd never seen Shikamaru so energetic. It was near impossible to get Shikamaru to argue about anything, he considered it way too much work and if you couldn't figure something else out on your own that was your problem. Choji and Ino were staring buy eyed, but to his amusement Sakura and Sasuke appeared enraptured. They were looking back and forth between the arguing pair with looks of fascination and glee. He'd never seen the Uchiha heir so undignified.

"It's not that hard to understand. You just need to do what feels right. Why is that so hard for you to understand?" Naru demanded, slamming her first on the table for emphasis.

Shikamaru's face flushed almost purple. "Things aren't supposed to "feel" right! They're supposed to _be_ right! Because they follow the rules and make sense!"

Naru's eyes narrowed dangerously. "If all you do is memorize brushstrokes and swirl patterns without making any attempt to understand the actual art itself you will never be anything more than mediocre at seals."

"Now that sounds familiar," a voice murmured from behind Asuma.

"It sure does," Jiraiya said with a grin. "Didn't Kushina give you the same lecture when Minato started teaching you seals?"

Kakashi grumbled good naturedly. "Uzumaki's have sealing in their blood. We mere mortals hardly stand a chance."

Naru turned to glare at Kakashi. In an exasperated voice she said, "That attitude is exactly what is keeping you back. You have good instincts, but you hesitate rather than give yourself over to them. You don't believe in yourself and that is your downfall. Not any other reason." With that she turned back to continue the argument.

Kakashi rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly, ignoring Asuma and Jiraiya laughing at him. That was frighteningly similar to a lecture he'd received from Minato and Kushina.

Jiraiya was enjoying himself. Tsunade had kicked everyone but their sensei out so she could get the exact details of just what she'd gotten herself into and he and Kakashi'd made a beeline for the kids. They'd been just as surprised to see the argument going on. He was very happy to see that Naru had managed to adopt the Uzumaki approach to seals despite not having anyone to teach her. (He didn't know that they'd taken a detour on the way home from Wave and Naru had plundered all she could find of the Uzumaki archives.)

Jiraiya shifted to make room for Shikaku who'd wandered closer to join in the gossip. "I don't think I've ever seen Shikamaru so fired up. Just figures that it'd be over the most troublesome girl in the entire village. Who do you think would have given him a harder time? Minato or Kushina?"

Jiraiya and Kakashi didn't even have to think about it. "Minato." If he'd lived Naru would have been the princess of the village. No boy would have a chance to get close to her. Kushina would have thought the whole thing hilarious and would have encouraged Naru to date around just to torment Minato.

Sasuke wished he had popcorn. It was rare to see Naru so passionate. She'd had similar arguments with the team, but they all recognized her superiority and tried to learn from her rather than argue the way Shikamaru was. When she wasn't maintaining her mask of hyperactive idiot Naru was surprisingly calm. Sasuke privately thought that Naru was just so weighed down with pain and sadness that it actually overpowered any positive emotions and left her fairly neutral overall. That was why he was enjoying this so much. Not only was it entertaining in general, but it seemed good for Naru.

Sakura wanted to squeal. She was enjoying the argument as well, she'd had many of the same problems and felt the same way about the lack of logic when it came to seals, but she was more interested in the chemistry between Shikamaru and Naru. She had never seen either of them so fired up and she liked it.

Naru could see the looks they were getting from their teams but couldn't bring herself to care. She was not about to let Shikamaru get away with insulting her family's legacy. At the same time, she recognized that he was the heir of the Nara clan. If he denounced seals, then more than likely his whole clan would too. And if they did that the Akimichi and Yamanaka clans would likely follow suit. With that in mind Naru forced herself to take a deep breath and forced herself to calm down.

"Shikamaru," she said evenly, "when you make a plan you make a sign with your hands, right?"

Shikamaru nodded, not sure where the troublesome blonde was going with this.

Naru nodded as well. "And why do you do that? The sign itself doesn't do anything; the pose serves no concrete purpose. But it works because it feels right. There is no logical reason that squatting like so and placing your hands in just the right position should make you think or plan better than if you were standing up. But it does, doesn't it? And you know it works because it feels right. And until right this moment I'd bet you never even gave it a second thought."

Shikamaru was gob smacked. And the worst part was that she was right. It really didn't make sense why he made that pose but at this point if he tried to plan any other way, he knew it would feel wrong even though he logically knew it shouldn't make any difference. And he really had never given it a single thought before.

Shikaku didn't even try to conceal his wicked amusement. He had the distinct feeling that he was standing in front of his future daughter-in-law. And she was without a doubt the most troublesome girl in the entire village. He'd heard Shikamaru's dream of the perfect wife and Naru couldn't be further from it. It was plain to see that Naru would be drop dead gorgeous in a few years. And Shikaku had a feeling that Shikamaru might just end up being the jealous type. And when word finally got out about her parents (and it would) she'd be a target for Rock for the rest of her life. And Cloud and Grass had combined forces to wipe out the Uzumaki so they might come after Naru as well. And the entire Team Seven had proven themselves to be absolute powerhouses and would only get stronger as time went on. And if Naru was anything like her parents she would not stand for anyone doing less than their best.

Naru could see that she'd made her point and pushed, "Now, do you want to keep arguing or are you ready to learn?"

Shikamaru felt like grumbling when he saw the smug smirk on Naru's face, but he had to concede that she'd made her point. So, he held his tongue and got to work.


	14. Heartfelt discussion

Naru let out a loud and dramatic sigh as she collapsed on the couch. She was very pointedly ignoring Sasuke's smug smirk and Sakura's poorly suppressed giggles.

"They're demons!" she shouted, burying her head into a pillow, ignoring Kurama's protests that demons were much more civilized and dignified.

Sakura tried to adopt a scolding look, but her giggles ruined the effect. "They're just children, Naru. You and Kiba were just as bad."

Naru bolted up, shaking her head in vehement denial. "I was never that bad. Iruka-sensei would have thrown me out of the window by my ear! I'm a ninja, not a babysitter. How can you live in a ninja village, be part of a prominent ninja family even, and not know what chakra is? The Ichiraku are civilians through and through and even they know "catra" is not a thing."

Sasuke hastily took a sip from his tea to hide his smile. He was so beyond thankful that no one thought it was a good idea to put him anywhere near a large group of children. But Naru's cheerful personality and friendly demeanor made her a prime target for the little beasts.

Sakura actually felt a little doubtful at Naru's statement. Surely no one was that stupid. "Are you sure they weren't just trying to tease you? There's no way they've not heard the word chakra by now."

Naru slumped back into the couch. "I sincerely hope so, but I got the distinct impression he was being honest." She huffed out a laugh. "I think I finally understand why Shikamaru always slept through the academy. As smart as he is? I bet he just wanted to constantly bash his head against the table over how stupid we all were."

Sakura perked up at that. It'd been almost three months since that day at the BBQ shop and Naru and Shikamaru continued to meet up regularly for "lessons." Naru denied that anything was going on other than actual lessons, but she'd banned her teammates from attending them.

Sakura had been able to rekindle her friendship with Ino by gossiping about the potential couple. Apparently Shikamaru was just as tight-lipped about the lessons which only made Ino want to know more.

There hadn't been any more shouting matches since that first day, at least none they'd heard about anyway, which left Sakura hoping that sparks of a different nature were flying.

Sasuke usually wasn't one to gossip, but even he could not resist involving himself in the speculation. He'd been going through the village and he'd been unfortunate enough to run into Team 8. Kiba had been as obnoxious as ever and started saying very crude things about Sasuke's teammates, most particularly voicing his approval of Naru's new outfit. Sasuke had been fingering a senbon and trying to decide where to shove it when Kiba fell over his own feet, upsetting a vegetable cart and causing a huge mess. Sasuke wouldn't have thought anything of it if he hadn't seen the rapidly retreating shadow returning to a very disgruntled looking Shikamaru. Sasuke'd raised an eyebrow in question and Shikamaru had blushed and took off in the opposite direction.

Just to see what kind of reaction it would get he told Naru what he'd seen and to his surprise she actually looked flattered. She'd been quick to hide the expression, but it was too late.

Kakashi had stayed out of it for the most part. He was torn between wanting to tease his student and an all-consuming fear of what Minato-sensei would do to him for letting her have a boyfriend and thirteen.

Sasuke leaned over and gently kicked at her ankle. "Don't you have to get ready for your date with the Nara?" Before Naru even had a chance to protest he said, "Yeah, yeah you're not dating I know."

Naru glanced at Sasuke, silently promising vengeance. He didn't realize the havoc she could wreak down on him now that they lived together.

She calmly walked out of the room (she did not storm out, shut up Sasuke) and went to the clearing where she and Shikamaru held their lessons. It was the clearing where she'd first discovered nature energy. It held a calming and comforting presence for her and Shikamaru liked watching the clouds. She'd found that the calming atmosphere helped her reign in her temper during their lessons and letting him break to cloud watch mid-way through the lesson helped them both.

It was during those breaks that Naru and Shikamaru were able to just talk to each other. Today their conversation had wandered to the topic of their teammates. Shikamaru was complaining about Ino complaining about Sakura being alone with Sasuke so much. This made Naru laugh.

"There is absolutely nothing romantic between Sasuke and Sakura. Sasuke would never go for someone like Sakura. Or Ino for that matter."

Shikamaru raised a brow in surprise. "I thought your team was close?"

"We are. Sasuke loves us like sisters, but he would never love us as a romantic partner. Sasuke has one hell of a temper, but he's also very fragile. Itachi broke Sasuke. And he's only just now even starting to recover. He needs someone kind and gentle. I think Hinata would be a good match for him, actually."

"Hinata?" Shikamaru asked, voice full of doubt. "Sweet, shy Hinata with Sasuke?"

Naru raised a brow at the lazy boy. "You think Hinata is sweet?" Shikamaru's unimpressed look proved that he was not falling for her fake jealousy. "But yes, that Hinata. She's sweet, but she also is strong enough to weather his bad temper. She has the guts to follow her goal and not let anything stop her from achieving her dream. Sasuke needs that kind of dedication. Plus, she can understand him in a way that we just can't. I understand the worst parts of Sasuke. I understand his pain, his darkness and his vengeance. But Hinata can understand the pain of distant family, the feeling of having an older brother that hates you and wants to hurt you. She can understand growing up in a clan and the kinds of expectations that brings. And the struggle that comes from trying to establish yourself as an individual rather than just another member of the clan. Sasuke needs somewhere to go where he can find peace, love and happiness and Hinata needs someone who respects her values and will accept nothing less than her best. He will push her to do better, to be better, and it will be to her benefit."

Shikamaru hummed thoughtfully. "I guess that makes sense. I'm not sure I really agree, but I don't know Sasuke the way you do. I really can't see Hinata with someone like that though."

Naru just smiled, reaching over to pat his head. It should have felt condescending, it kinda did still, but the obvious affection was clear. "I would have thought so too before the exam." Seeing the question in Shikamaru's eyes she continued. "Neji was absolutely brutal. He used everything he knew about her to hurt her as deeply as possible. Sasuke isn't much better than that sometimes. He is cold and cruel and cutting and hurtful, but Hinata proved that she can take it. She still loves that jerk and understands where he was coming from and she forgives him. But even in the face of his cruelty she never let him break her. She stayed strong and held her convictions. That kind of strength is hard to come by. Sasuke can nurture that. He can be surprisingly gentle once he comes to care for someone. Neji saw that strength and wanted to crush it, Sasuke would help it grow. He has no patience for weakness and really respects the desire to improve yourself. I think he'd really respect the effort she puts in to try and improve. And Hinata wants to challenge herself. She knows she has to push herself. She needs someone who pushes her too."

Shikamaru considered that and finally conceded the point. Sometimes couples made no sense whatsoever, but still worked really well. "So how did Sakura take the rejection?" He knew Ino was going to throw a fit.

Naru snorted. "First off, Sakura was not rejected. We are Sasuke's family and will be by his side for the rest of his life. Second, Sakura has no romantic feelings for Sasuke whatsoever, she only thought she did. Sakura's very extreme. She loves fiercely, she hates fiercely, she lives fiercely. She needs someone every bit as fierce and lively. I think Lee might be a good match if he can find himself."

"What do you mean "find himself?" He seemed pretty confident of himself to me."

"Then you clearly weren't paying attention." She said, words harsh for all her tone was mild. She ignored his glare and elaborated. "Through Gai's story I was able to get a brief glance at Lee, but that guy is hidden behind Gai Jr. Lee didn't grow into himself, he's trying to grow into Gai. If he ever realizes that he can't be someone he's not he might actually be quite the catch."

Shikamaru snorted. Green spandex that left nothing to the imagination, bushy eyebrows and a bowl cut? Shikamaru was hardly shallow but even he had standards. As was quickly becoming the norm Naru seemed to know exactly what he was thinking.

Naru gently lifted Shikamaru's head into her lap and combed her fingers through his hair. Shikamaru could sense how far away she was and stayed quiet so she could gather her thoughts. "I really admire Lee," she said quietly, continuing the combing motion. "It's so hard to stay strong when everyone is telling you you're weak. I admire his determination to prove himself. I admire his belief and dedication towards hard work being more important than talent. That kind of work ethic deserves a lot of respect and he has such a good attitude about it all. He didn't let life make him jaded which is rare."

Shikamaru felt a flash of jealousy burn through him and it was an effort to keep the bite out of his voice when he said, "What are you doing with me then? I'm not any of those things."

Naru smiled gently. She could tell that Shikamaru was feeling insecure, so she lightly scratched at his scalp and answered him. "It's true, you're not like Lee. But that's not a bad thing. You see so much more than most, and I feel like you can always see me. Even when I'm not invisible I sometimes feel like I am because no one _wants_ to see me. And you are sure of your own mind which means that you are not easily swayed once you make a choice. That steadiness is wonderful. In this whirlwind of life, you are a rock I can rest my back against. I like that reliability. I won't lie and pretend that its not a comfort that I can easily overpower you. For so many years I've stayed safe because no one can find me when I hide. But I don't want to keep hiding. I want to fight back. I want to be so strong nobody will dare try and touch me again."

Shikamaru wanted desperately to say or do something to pull Naru out of the dark place she'd wandered into, but he didn't know what. He remembered Naru making a passing comment about liking the sound of his voice, so he carefully averted his eyes to create the illusion of privacy and started describing the clouds. He talked about the shape, the type of cloud, even wondered aloud if the texture would be similar to marshmallow fluff. He could tell when Naru was herself again but decided to keep up the commentary until she had a chance to compose herself. He had just finished describing a cloud as being the exact shape, size and color as the mark left on your forehead after Iruka-sensei threw a piece of chalk at you for sleeping in class when he heard the soft giggles Naru was trying to hide. He pouted a little, but mostly he was relieved to see the twinkle in her eye.

She'd been right earlier; he had always seen her. From the first time he ever saw her when they were children, she'd always drawn his eye. He'd seen the way people treated her and he had not understood. His parents got a fierce and dangerous look whenever he brought her mistreatment up, but they'd been unable to answer his questions. Both of them had encouraged Shikamaru to try and befriend the girl, but it was almost like she'd disappeared off the face of the planet. No matter how hard he'd looked (and he'd gone searching through back alleys and playgrounds and for a while he'd even staked out Ichirakus) he could not find a trace of her. It was beyond a relief when he saw her back in class a week later. There had been a light in her eyes he'd never seen before, he'd since recognized it as the light of hope. After that he saw her less and less. He'd tried to approach her in the Academy, but he could see how skittish she was, and he was afraid to draw attention to her when she so desperately wanted to hide in case she decided to run for good. He couldn't really say when his crush really started but he'd always been so glad she'd never developed a crush on Sasuke like all the other girls in class. During the first part of the chunin exam he'd been worried by how close the two had seemed but seeing her nails at the finals had been a huge relief. Approaching her for seal lessons had been little more than an excuse to get closer to her.

It took no time at all for Naru to recognize that Shikamaru was only mildly interested in seals. It had puzzled her for a few weeks why Shikamaru was so insistent on continuing the lessons when it was clear he was not overly interested. She'd quickly realized the truth but hadn't been sure how to handle the situation. She'd gone to Iruka-sensei for advice.

It hadn't been awkward at all. Naru had a very unique bond with Iruka. After he lost his parents Iruka spent a few years on the street. Even after he became a ninja and started going on missions and making money Iruka had often had to choose between food and rent. He'd fallen prey to the same people Naru had. Iruka had been living on the streets for almost four years when he met Naru. He'd recognized her immediately and while a part of him wanted to hate her, one look at her beaten, emaciated frame was enough for him to reach out to her. He helped her to find places to sleep that were safe, he told her which food stalls were the most wasteful with their leftovers and how to steal without getting caught. She knew that he knew she didn't fully trust him, but he'd helped her as much as she was willing to accept. He tried to keep her safe, but he wasn't always able to be around. He'd been on a month-long mission that fateful afternoon and he'd gone into a frenzied panic when he couldn't find her after he got back. When he finally did, he knew right away what had happened to her. He'd been the one to explain it to her years later when he thought she'd be able to understand. That afternoon was the reason he'd decided to become an academy teacher. He wanted to be in the village if it ever happened again so that Naru knew she had somewhere to go. They'd grown apart a little after Naru graduated. Iruka wanted to give her space to bond with her team and he'd been so happy to see how deep that bond went. He was so relieved that Naru had a place to live that was safe and secure and that she had someone to come home to. He'd encouraged her to open up to her team and was so proud to see how far she'd come from that terrified, untrusting little girl he'd met all those years ago.

With all that they'd shared it was the easiest, most natural thing in the world for Naru to go to him for advice about Shikamaru. Iruka knew just how close of an eye Shikamaru had kept on Naru throughout the years so it was little surprise to hear that he was finally making a move. But he was much more interested in how Naru felt. She'd never really shown interest in anyone and he was worried about the long-term damage left behind from the years of abuse. Naru had been quiet for a long time and Iruka knew better than to interrupt and gave her the time to gather her thoughts. She hadn't explained her decision when she left, and he didn't press. She'd returned the next three days and spent most of that time sitting quietly while Iruka graded papers. On the third day she finally spoke.

"Why haven't you ever dated anyone?"

Iruka sighed. He'd hoped Naru would never ask him that question, but he refused to lie to her.

"There is at least a part of it that is just that I haven't met anyone that I feel that way about. But there's also a part of it that's about you and me. I'm angry at all the people who stood by and didn't see that we needed help. All the people who took advantage of a child who just wanted to eat. The people who stood by and pretended not to see what was happening. I know that there are people who weren't involved, who genuinely did not know what was happening, but it doesn't feel like it. I can't forgive any of them enough to give my heart to anyone. So, for now I take care of the kids who come through and hope that they will prove to be better people than their predecessors. If and when I find someone that I'm willing to take that leap of faith for I hope I'm in a good enough place that I can make that choice. If you feel like you can take that chance now, then you shouldn't let my hang-ups stop you. Shikamaru had nothing to do with any of it and he was one of the few who never picked on you. You could certainly do worse."

With Iruka's encouragement Naru was about to take a chance. Shikamaru had been embarrassed to realize he'd not been as subtle as he'd though he'd been. They'd both agreed not to announce anything to their teams, both to keep any pressure or teasing at bay, but also because they were both trolls at heart and had a bet going to see who could keep their team from finding out the truth the longest. Naru was planning to cheat soon. As soon as they ran into Team Ten, she was going to kiss Shikamaru in front of them. She knew he wasn't expecting direct sabotage, but hey, always look underneath the underneath, right?


	15. Dammit Kiba!

Naru was having the time of her life. Naru, Gai and Lee were on a small training trip focusing exclusively on speed. Each day was a little bit different from the last which kept it fun and exciting. She had no doubt that prolonged exposure to the two would lead to the complete and utter breakdown of what was left of her sanity, but in short bursts it could be invigorating. It was a novel experience to go toe-to-toe with someone who could keep up with both her stamina and her enthusiasm. It was also fun getting to know Lee and Gai more in depth. Gai had a surprisingly wicked sense of humor and was more than happy to tell her everything he knew about Kakashi's embarrassing moments.

Lee was a lot calmer around the two of them. Since neither of them were considered geniuses and both believed in the power of hard work Lee didn't feel threatened or like he needed to prove himself. Without that pressure he was free to enjoy the challenge and thrill of competing against someone who was more or less equal in skill. Lee and Gai were both impressed with Naru's speed and they were discussing the merits of weight seals versus actual weights and she won them over to her side fairly easily. She hadn't gone too much into detail about seals, that would come later, instead choosing to keep focus on the current training. With their speed they'd be able to draw seals quickly and efficiently, and a lack of chakra would not be an issue.

Naru deliberately put seals out of her mind. Right now, they were training their bodies and she relished the burn of her muscles. She loved jutsu, but there was a deep satisfaction inherent in physical work. They were on the last day of their trip and were currently racing to see who would get there first. For Lee and Naru it was one of their first chances to really go all out without any of their weights. It was a challenge to adjust to moving at such high speeds. It was hard to temper reaction time and adjust to covering ground in much shorter amounts of time. Unsurprisingly, Gai was winning. Naru and Lee had both run headfirst into several different trees. It was a little embarrassing, but Gai explained to them how hard it could be to adjust to moving at such high speed. Naru had already decided to start spending at least one day a week without her weights so that she could get used to working at her body's actual strength and speed.

Naru glanced at the sky. She could tell that they were getting close. This was really exciting for her because they had been (by anyone else's pace) three days away when they started. Lee let out a cheer when the gates came into view. Naru poured on the speed and managed to get ahead of Lee and she narrowly managed to get second place. Lee pouted a little but accepted his loss graciously. He also resolved to train even hard to win in the future.

Naru nodded in thanks to Gai and Lee and then headed towards Ichiraku. Gai'd planned a dinner with all the rookies from her class. It was a great motivator for her to keep going with that as an incentive. Gai really was more devious than people gave him credit for. He'd deliberately waited before issuing the race to increase their urgency.

Naru ducked into the stall and saw that she was indeed the last person to arrive. Ino was yelling at Choji and Shikamaru and Kiba was obnoxiously trying to encourage everyone to start without Naru. Naru walked over and punched Kiba in the back of the head (not hard, no need to damage the counter, after all). Sasuke raised one eyebrow. "Where have you been?"

"Sorry," Naru smiled. "We were in Sand this morning when Gai-sensei told us it was time to go home and that there was a party tonight."

Ino's eyes bugged out of her head. "Are you serious? Sand is a three-day hard run, there's no way you were there this morning!"

Naru smiled, although a more accurate description might be to say she bared her teeth. "You're free to check with Gai-sensei if you don't believe me."

Ino closed her eyes and held her tongue. Her sensei had talked to her about being nicer to Naru because it caused unnecessary friction on their team for her to be catty to her teammate's girlfriend. Eager to help diffuse the tension, Choji chimed in. "Well then you must be starving. Let's eat!"

Teuchi's timing was impeccable and as if on cue he came out with their bowls. For the next few minutes nothing further was said as everyone took their time enjoying their food.

Most of them finished after two bowls and then they were left watching the impromptu contest between Naru and Choji who were each on their tenth bowl. Neither one showed any sign of slowing down anytime soon.

After the fifteenth bowl Kiba let out a low whistle. "Damn. Teuchi is lucky, he never has to throw anything out. He can just use all the stuff that's going bad on you two and you'd probably never notice."

Sasuke and Sakura heard a little choking sound but when they looked Naru was gulping down the broth from her bowl like normal. There was a rigidity to her muscles that was unusual for her though. They were even more suspicious when she didn't order a new bowl. Naru could eat twice that on a normal day and after training with Gai and Lee is could be three or four times that.

Naru could clearly see their confusion but rather than answer the unspoken question she started talking to Shikamaru so that no one else would question the fact that she'd stopped eating.

After that it seemed that Naru was determined to avoid her team. Oh, she still showed up for training and given the random messes Sasuke would find around the house he knew she was still living with him, but other than that no one could find her. They didn't think she was using her special trick to hide from them, she was just using speed and her knowledge of their schedules to avoid them.

Concerned, Sakura approached Shikamaru, who shared their concerns. He didn't know Naru as well as they did yet, but he could tell she was acting strange. Whenever he tried to ask or indicated he'd be willing to listen she refocused on their sealing lessons, completely shutting down any attempts to talk.

They were heading out on a mission in the morning, their first one since Naru started avoiding them, and they were determined to get an answer.

As was quickly becoming the norm for Team Seven their mission did not go quite as expected. What should have been a very simple mission escorting merchants to their destinations led them through a territory that was apparently in the middle of a revolution to oust their tyrannical leader. They probably would have been able to escape unnoticed, but one of the merchants, ever the entrepreneur, was seen selling to the head of the king's guard and was declared an enemy of the state and people tried to kill him.

It was a very exhausted team that limped their way back to Konoha. They were resting for the night in their camp and Sakura was putting the finishing touches on the wild rabbit they'd caught. Everyone was tearing into their food with a gusto, worn out from their last few days.

Because he'd been so intent on his own meal it took a few minutes for Sasuke to notice that Naru was not eating.

"Is something wrong?" he asked, brow raised. Naru had never been all that picky about food and she was almost ruthlessly practical and unlikely to pass on food even if it was a little bland.

Naru's flinch was almost unnoticeable, but all of her teammates zeroed in on it at once. Naru flushed a bright red and it almost looked like she would answer, but after opening and closing her mouth a few times she set her jaw with a stubborn look and stormed into the tent to avoid them.

Though they were exasperated, and a little hurt at being blown off again, they would have let it go without pressing, but Kakashi jumped to his feet and followed her, prompting Sakura and Sasuke to follow as well. Kakashi sat down next to the figure huddled under a mountain of blankets and, being surprisingly gentle, though still firm, asked, "Why are you crying?"

It was a shock for Sakura and Sasuke to realize that Naru was indeed crying, now they were alarmed. Naru never cried. Not even when talking about her rape. What could possible have caused her to do so now?

Naru shook her head, trying in vain to deny that she was crying, but she was so miserable she started crying even harder.

Though he looked vaguely uncomfortable at all the emotions that were happening, Kakashi scooped Naru into his arms and gently rocked her back and forth. The foreign sensation of actually being comforted broke the last dam and Naru was hysterically sobbing, leaving her team even more baffled and worried.

Eventually her tears started to slow down and Naru was laying against Kakashi completely silent as the occasional tear slid down her cheek. Sakura and Sasuke had been quiet the entire time, giving Naru her privacy, but now Sakura asked, "What's wrong Naru?"

Naru's voice was hoarse from sobbing as she quietly answered, "I'm just so hungry."

A little put off by yet another evasion but understanding how draining crying could be Sakura offered to go grab Naru's portion of rabbit but paused when she saw the barely concealed anxiety in Naru's face. Sasuke and Kakashi saw it too and zeroed in on the expression.

Naru knew she couldn't keep pretending, and truthfully, she didn't want to. "I can't eat," she whispered, ashamed.

"What do you mean?" Sasuke asked. There was no judgment in the tone, merely curiosity.

"I have problems with food sometimes," Naru said. "When I lived on the streets people put things in the food and even when I bought food from stores people would only give me food that had gone bad or they did something to it. Usually I just have to make sure everything is really fresh, and it was cooked right, but that's not always enough. I still can't eat most meat, only stuff that we hunted and killed and cooked thoroughly. But Ichiraku's has always been safe. Teuchi is always so careful to cook everything thoroughly and he likes me and would never put anything in my food. He saw someone try to put something in my bowl once and he threw that guy out and permanently banned him. It's _safe._ But when Kiba made that stupid comment about Teuchi using ingredients about to go bad it set me off. And I can't eat anything. I can barely drink water without getting sick after. Usually I can get through it by eating really bland foods that don't really go bad but it's not working. And I'm so hungry."

Sasuke was definitely killing Kiba when they got back to Konoha. He knew he'd heard something right after the mutt made his comment, but he'd just let it go.

Sakura was every bit as angry as Sasuke, but she had a much more pressing concern. "Are you telling me you haven't eaten in three weeks?" Sakura blurted out in horror.

Naru shook her head, looking small and miserable and guilty. Kakashi and Sasuke were just as horrified as Sakura. Kakashi's gaze landed on Sakura. "Do you have anything that can help, or do we need to make for Konoha now?"

The serious tone and the urgency of the situation made Sakura want to freeze up. She pushed those feelings aside and turned to face Naru. "What stops you from eating? Is it the flavor, the texture? Or the actual thought of eating something?"

Naru furrowed her brow. "It being in my mouth, I think. I avoid flavors because they go sour so fast, but feeling the texture, it becomes slimy or thick and I try to swallow but I end up gagging."

Sakura nodded. "Alright, right now our priority is getting _something_ into you, we can work on the rest afterwards. I know a jutsu that deadens the nerves in an area. It's used for surgery, but you won't be able to feel or taste anything. If we cut everything small enough, we should be able to make a stew that you should be able to drink without choking."

Sasuke quickly set to work chopping up the meat into small pieces along with various herbs they'd collected. It didn't even matter what they were, they were just trying to cram as many nutrients as possible in there. Sakura was trying to make a broth so that they could give Naru multiple servings.

Kakashi watched his students with a mix of pride at their teamwork and profound sadness that he'd missed one of his student's pain. He was giving serious thought to defecting again. It seemed like every time he thought he'd finally come to terms with the worst of Naru's suffering he'd always find something new to kick him right in the teeth. He listened with no small amount of pride as Sasuke informed Naru in no uncertain terms that mealtimes would now be a supervised activity and if necessary, he would taste test every single dish for her.

Naru's reply was feint. She was genuinely ashamed to have caused so much trouble. It really felt like she should be over this by now, she'd been dealing with her food issues for years and she'd thought she'd finally gotten better which is why the relapse was so hard for her. She thought she'd finally gotten over it.


	16. Talking it Out

The trip back to Konoha was pretty uneventful. Team Seven had dragged their heels on their return, making use of the isolation to try and deal with Naru's problem without having to deal with the village as well. Sakura had successfully made a stew that she blended so finely Naru was able to drink it despite having no feeling in her mouth. She informed them all that once the were back in the village they would need to come up with a more long-term solution.

When they did finally return Tsunade looked ready to ream them for being so late, but after one look at the clear agitation and tension in the team, said nothing when Kakashi told her in no uncertain terms that they were on leave for the next few weeks.

They all retreated to the Uchiha compound and were now sitting in the living room, all feeling awkward and unsure where to even start. Finally, Sakura spoke up, "I'm sorry Naru, but we are going to need to talk about this." She turned to face her, taking care to speak gently, but firmly. "We've never talked about any of the things you chosen to share with us because you made it clear you weren't ready or even able to talk about it. And we've tried to respect that even though we want to help you. But this is different. Not being able to eat can kill you, we can't just leave this alone until you're ready to talk about it."

Naru flinched a little but nodded. She'd never really opened up about her life to anyone. She'd never gone into detail before, never really had to for people to understand how terrible it had been, but she simply couldn't handle this on her own.

"I lived in the orphanage for a while but when I was 'old enough' they kicked me out. It wasn't too bad at first. I was used to not having fresh or hot food, I usually only had leftover scraps from the orphanage, so it wasn't a big deal for me to eat out of the trash outside restaurants. But the owners noticed what I was doing, and they started putting stuff in the trash. At first it was just so much spice it felt like my tongue was going to melt or soap or something, but when that didn't stop me, they started putting stuff like rat poison on it."

Kakashi had to look at the wall. He physically could not bring himself to look at Naru when she talked about her childhood. He would be tracking Gai down later for a spar. The man would understand and not hold a grudge about any injuries.

Sasuke felt sick. Even after his entire family died, he'd never gone hungry, not for a single day. He had the entire village falling all over themselves to try and take care of him. He couldn't even imagine being in the situation Naru described.

Sakura forced herself to keep a blank face when all she wanted to do was cry. Well, that or destroy the village. She was ashamed to know that her parents had been some of Naru's tormenters, though she'd never had the courage to ask exactly what they had done to the girl.

Naru looked away, continuing her story. "When I realized that the dumpsters weren't safe anymore, I tried stealing, but I wasn't fast or sneaky enough to get away and the beatings just weren't worth it. So, for a while I was just starving, not knowing what to do next. Then a "nice" man," Naru spat the word nice like the most vile of swears, "offered me some food. I was so happy that someone was being so nice to me and just so grateful to have food. I didn't even notice that I was falling asleep." Naru scrubbed her face with her forearm, staving off the tears that were threatening to make a reappearance. "There's no reason you'd have known this, it's never come up or anything, but poisons don't really work on me very well. I metabolize them quickly thanks to Kurama. So, I woke up much sooner than the guy was expecting. He was still on top of me, only barely started. I told you before about how I hid under the dumpster the first time. That's also when my food problems started. I was so scared the next time I ate something that I would fall asleep and wake up and find someone on top of me."

Kakashi wanted so badly to tear someone's throat out but he didn't dare make a move or sound now that Naru was finally opening up to them. She desperately needed the chance to finally lance the wound that was her childhood and he would not be the reason she stopped.

"I started stealing from different dumpsters, always moving so that things were less likely to be poisoned and, in the Academy, we started covering edible plants and things so I started foraging for myself in the woods. There were times where I was desperate enough that I took the food from people even though I knew what would happen because I just needed to eat so badly."

Sasuke felt the angry tears welling up. No one should ever be made to choose between starving to death and being raped. The knowledge that Naru let herself be raped, knowing how it had affected her, just for the food that he'd always taken for granted was just so unfair. He hated the childish thought, it wasn't nearly enough to express the outrage and the hatred and the overwhelming horror, but it was. It was so unfair that Naru was put through so much never-ending pain and torment for something that was not her fault in any way.

"When the Hokage set me up in an apartment I started having consistent access to food and once Iruka-sensei became a teacher and had a more stable income he helped me out with buying food. But the people at the grocery stores would charge me three times as much for things and they'd always swap things out. Instead of fresh fruit I had stuff that was bruised and half-rotten. Instead of fresh meat I had stuff that was going sour and not safe to eat. And it would get too hard to eat, it wasn't worth the panic and the anxiety and worrying about if someone had done something to it. Even if poison won't kill me it still isn't fun. My stomach cramps and I get so nauseous and hot and it feeling like ants crawling through my body."

Naru wrapped her arms around herself, disturbed at just the memory of the horrid sensations. "I could usually handle whenever my eating thing acted up. I could just make plain white rice, bland, easy and convenient. Or I could go into the woods and pick some berries or nuts and I could get through it until I could go back to eating regularly. But this time it isn't working. I don't know what to do," she whispered, miserable and so, so tired.

Sakura reached forward and pulled Naru into a hug. She had long since given in to the urge to cry and was so relieved to finally have the chance to comfort her sister. Sasuke wasted no time in wrapping himself around the both of them, protecting them for the world for the time being.

Kakashi looked on as his team embraced and while a part of him was fiercely proud of them for coming together like this, he was mostly just sad. Sad and angry. But he could focus on that later. For now, he needed to come up with a plan.

"Naru," he asked, drawing the attention of his entire team. "Do you trust me?"

Naru just looked at him, confused. "Of course."

Kakashi smiled, though his heart still ached. "Good. I think I have a possible solution for this."

His entire team perked up a little and despite himself he was amused. He resisted the urge to pat them on the heads like he would his pack, they likely wouldn't appreciate the comparison.

"The Hatake family owns a small compound and piece of land. I haven't lived there since my father died, but I still own it. As with all Clan Compounds it is expressly forbidden for non-clan members to enter without permission. That means you can be absolutely sure that nothing in there has been poisoned or tainted in any way. There was a small river if I remember right and there was some local wildlife. We can hunt there so you know everything is safe to eat and fresh. I will show all of you some advance techniques to ensure food quality and we will all taste test the food for you."

He held up his hand to stop the protests he could already see forming. "No," he said firmly. "We absolutely will not sit back while you are suffering. We are too late to do anything to stop these issues from forming, but you can be damn sure we will be here to help you overcome them. Going hunting and being a little extra careful about food is the least we can do to support a team member in need. And if it helps you to eat, getting an early preview of the meal to come is hardly an imposition, is it?" He finished with a little eye smile.

Naru gave Kakashi a shaky smile. She'd spent so long trying to deal with all of her problems by herself, it was such a strange and novel thing to have people offering her their support and help. She felt a warmth in her chest as she sat back and let her family plan how best to help her.


End file.
